PURELY PIP: 1 Billion Humans Connected on Facebook. Time for the Magic…

Today, incredibly, 1 Billion human beings connected with each other on Facebook. So says Mark Zuckerberg who, in his usual humble way, is as surprised as the next guy at how his social project has blossomed into a global phenomenon.*

Human Beings. A billion of us. All magnificently, diversely unique. Connected. That is a magical thing, or could be…if we could just do it a little differently.

If the connection is the key to the magic, let’s try something.

Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I sure have, how Facebook is awash with criticism and condemnation, on all sides, on all fronts. White this, Black that, Gay this, Straight that, Jew, Palestinian, Islamic, Christian, this, that and the other. And all pretty hateful.

Try this. Instead of labelling a human being with some superfluous adjective, just don’t.

So no black guy shot some white reporter. Just “a troubled man shot an ex co-worker” gets the message across perfectly. And no “white cops beat up on black teen” because “cops beat teen” is brutal enough. Lose the vagaries of “them” and “they”.

When we see each other as human beings first and foremost, and treasure each other, respect each other, accept each other and love one another for no other reason than we are all human beings, we make the real connection.

The magic.

One billion of us.

Cruelty, perversion, brutality, injustice will be that much more significantly condemned because it affects all of our humanity. It is not a they and a them. It is just, quite simply, us.

All one billion of us.

Connected.

Right here and quite literally in the palm of our hands. My God. What an opportunity.

*Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that on Monday Facebook had reached its new milestone – 1 billion people used the social media giant in one day. That’s one in seven people on Earth!