Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee All the Best.

A few years ago I was traveling in Asia and we took a flight into one city in Asia and then another flight to a different city.

And once we arrived there, we took a long bus ride out to a large lake where there was a floating village, so we got from the bus onto a boat.

And as we took this boat out into the middle of the lake and the shore disappeared behind us,

I think I felt as far from home as I have ever felt.

And a friend I was with was even more out of

her element and visibly very uncomfortable. And at one point, she leaned over and said, why are we here?

Right as she asked that, a tiny boat floated up alongside ours. And a woman looked up at me and we locked eyes.

We were about the same age and she had her son with her who was about the same age as my

son back at home.

And I had this profound sense of shared humanity.

I felt my heart swelling beyond what I felt my body could even

hold as this woman just looked right into my eyes. And I thought, I'm here because these people

are real, as real as I am. And I want to know about all the people I share this planet with,

not only because I'm curious and I like to learn as much as I possibly can about everything.

Also, because I love all my spiritual siblings, not just the ones who look like me or the

ones who live like me.

And also, as I talked about on previous episodes, sometimes if we don't make meaningful

connections with people beyond our communities and our comfort zones, we might unwittingly

harm them.

We might support a war that kills or maims them or sanctions that impoverished them. We might

unthinkingly use slang that demeans them. We might support policies or vote for legislation

...