Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

by Krista Tippett

In the early debates around integrating schools, the white segregationists said, “We can’t have integrated schools because black and white children might get to know each other and might marry each other and have babies.” The Civil Rights Movement said, “This is not about marriage.” But the white segregationists were right. You bring people together, they will actually learn to love each other. Some of them will marry and have children. It will actually change the fabric of society. When people worry that having gays in our community will change what marriage really means, actually, they’re right. When people worry that having a lot of Latinos in the United States will change the United States, they are right. We’re constantly making each other. Part of it is our fear that we are holding on to something and the other is going to change it. And the other is going to change it—but we’re going to change the other. If we do it right, we’re going to create a bigger “we,” a different “we.”