One and Many

It was a sea of light blue – three thousand graduates sitting on the football field below us with family members in the seats surrounding them. In one glance, they were one class, student s who had traveled together for four years, the class of 2026. In another, they were three thousand individuals, each with his or her own story. As I sat there waiting for the ceremony to begin, I went from one glance to the other, one perspective to another, and could not help but see how important it is that I develop each as live my life.

We live in a country that seeks to embrace the two views. Our motto, E Pluribus Unum, means out of many, one. Like the graduates sitting below me, there are many people and many states, but we are one country. I take comfort in that motto but can see countless examples when one perspective overshadowed another, when we forgot the nation as a whole because we were fixated on the individuals, or we forgot the importance of individuals because we were worried about the country as a whole.

The struggle to hold both perspectives is equally challenging for us in our daily lives. When the world and everyone I know seems to be travelling in countless directions, I long for everyone to get along and act and think the same way. It would be so much easier, I say to myself. So too, when the world claims everyone should be alike, should do or think the same way, I want to shout out that we were created unique and our job is to live into that uniqueness (and allow others to do the same). The tension between unity and individuality has always been a struggle - for people like you and me and nations like ours.

I was reminded as I watched the graduation that it’s not a question of either/or, but both/and. When the class of three thousand students stood and swayed and sang along to the song being sung on stage, I celebrated their oneness. As I listened to the individual families shout out when their graduate was mentioned, I loved imagining that graduate’s particular journey.

At the end of graduation, there were fireworks celebrating the class of 2026, then we made our way with the other families to embrace our particular graduate.

On the 250th year of our country, and as people of faith, my prayer is that we will remember the importance of both celebrations