Despite society's seeming obsession with competition and one-upmanship, the raw and sometimes hard-to-live-up-to truth is that our planet is a closed system - there is no actual "away" to throw things, no true "other" to be afraid of and no possible difference between the suffering of one and the suffering of all, even if that isn't apparent at first glance.

As many spiritual and religious teachers instruct, we are all one with our brothers and sisters, and we are all brothers and sisters. Just as you can't sanely or healthily cut off one finger to "leave more stuff" for the rest of the hand, neither can you pollute, exploit, undermine or hurt one part of earth, one population of people or one species of life without it eventually coming back to hurt us all.

In a closed system, we either all win or we all lose, as a group. A quick visualization of an ant farm or an aquarium in which one inhabitant or group of inhabitants is attempting to ruin or exploit the other inhabitants' abode and life-support systems for their own benefit - and in the process rendering it unlivable or even dangerous - without affecting themselves points up the concreteness of this reality and the absurdity of behaving otherwise. But the truth is, we do this everyday and we do it with that same self-satisfied and smug attitude that reflects a similar complete state of denial of the absurdity of our actions.

No matter how big or open it seems, the earth is just one big ant farm and we are the ants. We destroy, endanger, exploit or otherwise screw up the "other side" at our peril - indeed our own peril is only just now becoming alarmingly clear to us in many ways with the advent of undeniable climate change, unsustainable lifestyles and unavoidable economic crises.

How are you willing to shift your attitude and behavior to encompass this understanding of a "one for all and all for one" existence? How does your current life reflect the reality of unity - and how does it deny it? As much as we might not care for it, change toward and acceptance of the need to embrace all life as sacred is coming, and none to soon in the opinion of many (and hopefully, none to late, either). It is quickly becoming apparent that we either all cross the finish line together or we all lose the race. Are you ready to open your arms to the world?