Hi, Wise Ones, it's Kimmy.

It's 2023 and it's Pride Month. Fourth of July is just around the corner.

Our country was founded and even named with the words United States. We were intended to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

As you all know, today we are a country that is divided, we are fractured, we are broken. I believe that like me, many of you are

looking for, are yearning for hope and possibility for our country's future,

that somehow, some way, we will be united. We will thrive again. So it seemed like the

perfect time to go back and share one of my favorite stories we've aired on the podcast. The story is about two men, Tim and Matthew.

As teenagers, Tim was a white supremacist, and Matthew was gay and living on the streets.

Tim beat Matthew so bad, he nearly died. Decades later, in a chance meeting at the Museum of Tolerance,

Tim and Matthew's world collided again, and they ultimately became friends.

I'm not sure what the path back is to a united country.

But I do know the change doesn't happen with only

surrounding ourselves and engaging with people who think and act like us. It requires courage

to sit with people who do not think like us or look like us or talk like us or share our faiths, our values,

and our beliefs. It's not about abandoning your belief system. It's about reaching out to

acknowledge our shared humanity so that somehow, some way together, we find a path to move

forward and thrive.

Tim and Matthew's story is exceptional.

It's exceptional in its rareness.

And that is just the thing that makes it so powerful.

If they can learn to see each other as human and whole and find ways to connect and communicate.

Perhaps we can do the same with our neighbors, our colleagues, our family, or anyone we deem as other.

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