For a long time, I felt like I was the only person with the word ‘unity’ in their common vocabulary - the only person even thinking about it; however, now, on February 9, 2021, the word has become one that I see every day on the news and on my Twitter feed and hear dropped as casually as the weather. And as someone who is passionate about unity, i’m not totally sure how I feel about it.
What do i do now that the word unity is top of mind? That the nation’s leaders and thinkers are using it to market their campaigns and move their image forward? These should be good things. I want people to hear the word unity and find the hope and reconciliation that it contains.
But right now, it doesn’t seem like the word unity contains much of anything - because right now, it’s being used as just a word.
Unity isn’t meant to be a marketing buzzword to grow your product or your persona. It’s not meant to be used in such a way that it isn’t backed up by any action. It’s not meant to be a drop in an empty bucket.
Unity is mean to be strong, to be a foundation - A foundation for community and opportunity.
And right now, as someone hell bent on learning about unity, writing about it and trying to live it out, it’s hard to watch a passion became a product to use and wield without regard to the deconstructing its doing to such a powerful word. As David Dark puts it, “Unity without reckoning is marketing.”
May unity grow, thrive and increase in our world, not only in its vocabulary, but also in its actions.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: Don’t just be a marketer.