Many years ago, a man came up to me at a meditation center and asked me my race. I answered, but then he immediately countered and said, “No no…you are part of the Golden race! It is the new race that is a beautiful blend of all races. It is our wonderful future.”
At the time, I recall being humbled in the midst of his grand words, giving him a big smile, and leaving him with the book of poetry I was reading. I’ve thought of his words from time…and indeed, when applications request race, I routinely select, “Other” (I hate to be categorized anyway). When there is a line to write next to the “Other” option, I have on occasion written, “Gold.” Haha. I’m such a rebel.
I was reminded of those words again recently while viewing a wonderful book of portraits by one of my favorite photographers, Steve McCurry (click here for link to the book). I kept thinking that if you look at a portrait long enough, you can start seeing familiar features…of yourself or someone you know. And then I considered the wonderful spectrum of beautiful skin tones in the world. I think if you blended them all together, we’d get to gold ;)
Or what if we mixed every color of flower? I think we’d end up at gold again. The sun is the source of our light, so does it not make sense that the true reflection would be the same? Altogether gold? It is our glorious present, we just don’t realize it.
So I think of his words not from some exalted state…but from a magical place. A space where we all understand our true beauty and connectedness. Where we know that together we are gold. ;)
Photo source: Nefertiti <3 <3 by Nasser Omar