My Dream: Center for Tolerance

I have been asked what I want from this life.  It happened to come up after I had seen a clip of the Reverend Martin Luther King, and I thought, "I, too, have a dream."

I have a dream of a meeting hall, not a church and yet, a place of worship and meditation, a place for searching and spirituality, a place for people to congregate in peace.  This is my dream.

I see a hall for all faiths to come together in peace; a place to learn from one another, to celebrate the diversity of our faiths and to welcome one another to praise with each other.  I would like to see the lion lay down with the lamb.  The Jew takes a prayer rug and prays alongside the Muslim, and the Muslim enters the synagogue to hear the words Muhammad must have heard from his Jewish teachers.  He did have teachers from both faiths, Christian and Jew, guiding him down the path he would finally follow.  This "center" is my dream.

I see a central hall filled with plants and flowers, benches and fountains, where people sit and discuss philosophy and their personal paths; a place where all can come to teach and to learn, and to search; a place of peace where all are welcomed; a place of discovery, where the children of one faith can play with the children of another, because they are children, the favored of God.  This is my dream.

I see people that strive only to learn how to appropriately greet people of other faiths in the manner appropriate to their customs, and I see the other people smiling and correcting them, in peace and friendship, asking them to break bread with their family in the garden, as they talk of children and grandchildren, and those soon to be born.  People of different faiths finding common ground in understanding, in agreeing to disagree, in peace.  This is my dream.

I see a time when someone announces, "Let us pray." and all bow their head to worship, side by side with other faiths, in peace and camaraderie; a place where a Muslim, dying on a street from an accident can be helped from this life to the next by a Jew, knowing that it matters not what faith they are if their heart is pure.  This is my dream.

I see a large meditation garden attached to the hall with an alcove for every faith, every belief, to construct a place for peaceful meditation; a garden for weddings, and funerals, for baptisms and other cultural ceremonies; a place where all are welcomed to join in the happiness of the occasion, where even the passing of a loved one can be celebrated as they move forward beyond this realm or celebrated for their eventual return.  This is my dream.

I see an outdoor coffee bar, in the garden, where we can get a decent cup of coffee, tea, or chai for fifty cents.  This is my dream.

What did you dream today?