In the May 22nd, 2006 issue of Macleans, Micael Friscolanti wrote this confirmation of what we all inherently know – we are ONE: In the late 1990s, while locked away at Alberta’s Drumheller Institution, Darren LeTourneau served a lengthy spell in solitary confinement. All alone most of the day, he did what most prisoners in the hole often do: he drained his toilet, stuck his head over the bowl and struck up a conversation with the inmate next door. For months, he and his unseen neighbour — a prisoner named Ron — chatted through the underground pipes, usually for hours at a time. They even played chess, mimicking each other’s moves on their own separate boards. “We became pretty good friends,” LeTourneau recalls. One day, after weeks of anonymous toilet talk, the pair finally met face-to-face. Locking eyes in the prison exercise yard, LeTourneau was speechless.Ron was black.
Darren LeTourneau had been taught to hate. He had a swastika tattooed on his stomach. He was a bigotted man – a car-stealing, gun-toting, Neo-Natzi. Friscolanti writes how difficult it was for LeTourneau to give up his old prejudices of separateness, of seeing others as separate instead of sacred.
When I found out the colour of his skin I just didn’t like him, and I didn’t know why,” LeTourneau says, remembering that day in the yard. Back in his cell, he sat silently for hours, trying to justify his life of bigotry. Disillusioned, he eventually went back to the toilet, back to Ron. “I told him who I was and my beliefs,” LeTourneau says. “We just kind of worked through it together.
That seems like a plan. Do you think we could “just kind of work through it together” in Iran, Iraq, Darfur, North Korea – maybe even in deeply divided and separated America? In companies? In families? The healing would be so good for us all.
By the time he left the penitentiary, Darren LeTourneau had renounced racism. He had discovered Oneness.
If Darren can do it, perhaps this is a path that we could each follow too?
Hi! I am from India. Could not help but have a look at your site after reading Lance’s book “Inspire”.
From time immemorial, Indian spiritual scriptures have talked of the latent oneness of human beings. One also gets to read about it a lot in various management books and forums. However, when it comes to application, one is disappointed because hardly anything that is written in spiritual scriptures or for that matter is applied. I have always felt that applied spirituality has lagged way behind applied science though it may have had a headstart. It is said that ability should be supported by visibility. I really wonder whether anybody can make everybody see that they are one. There is more knowledge and verbalization on the issue than actual realization. If such athing were possible, it could really transform mankind. I call myself a student of applied spirituality.
I have not come across “One” in India so far but I hope it is different from the rest.
Thank you for making the point about “applied spirituality”. We so often talk about it, think about it, feel it, but less seldom do we DO it or LIVE it. So your comments are right on the mark – “ONE: The Art and Practice of Concious Leadership” is abook about this idea and how to live it. You can buy it here https://secretanstore.com/product.php?id=40 – thanks for writing.