The sky seems low in the land of the Himalayas. Mountains are everywhere. In front, behind, beneath, everywhere. The Himalayas are a young mountain range, the result of two continental plates slamming into each other 60 million years ago. That collision is not yet complete: the world�s highest mountains grow taller each year.

Drawn by the beauty of the jagged horizon, my tired feet skim the ground. I take in the thin air and keep moving, deeper and deeper into my world. Only one thing matches the mountains� magic this day: people the ones within the valleys, pulling life from rocky ground. The people of Nepal impress me. They have managed well for many centuries in one of the toughest environments on Earth. They are kind to strangers and, for the most part of two thousand years, have set a fine example of toleration and acceptance. Nepal is also the point where Asian culture collides with Indian culture, where Buddhism collides with Hinduism. But there is little conflict and no overbearing burden of unresolved wars. In Nepal, it seems, there are only smiles and hard work.

Women rhythmically work the muds of a rice paddy. One acknowledges me and quickly resumes the task. Tending rice is serious business. It is the dominant food for Nepal as it is for the world. My eyes are torn between the rugged faces of the women and the paddy field itself, part of a magnificent terrace system carved from the side of a mountain perhaps a thousand years ago.

I look at the women and try to imagine what their lives are like. Not in terms of education or income, but in happiness and sadness, dreams and fears. More importantly, I wonder what we mean to each other. As humans on Earth, these women and I share the same origin and destiny. Are we not then more alike then different?

That question follows me throughout the journey. That question is the reason for the journey.

It is not so hard to walk alone down the back streets of far away lands such as Africa, India and China when fuelled by a burning suspicion, a suspicion that races are empty exaggerations of minor differences, patriotism is an evil faith; and cultures are simple ways of living and surviving � nothing sacred about them.

Walls. Tired and hungry, I climb the steep incline through a dull fog. Doubts about the journey creep in while walking the Great Wall of China this afternoon. Is there meaning behind the lonely trek? Or is it just a distraction, another of life�s hollow episodes? Am I just like the rest, wasting time until death arrives? Home feels so far away.

I study the green, rolling hills of the Chinese countryside and realise how humans and everything else stretch across this planet. The land, the oceans, all are covered by a continuous blanket of life. In that sense, I am not so far away. I may be a great distance from the exact point of my birth, but I am still on the blanket.

My history degree ensures two things: challenging job interviews and a head cluttered with the accomplishments of the last thousand years. But this grey day in China I think only about how little we have accomplished. Humans consistently make sure to distance themselves from the rest of nature.

For reasons of arrogance and religion, humans imagine themselves lords of the Earth, far above the lions and lizards. Perhaps, but how far above? What has all our inventiveness and hard work amounted to?

Until we feed our children and tolerate our neighbours, until we manage that, I say we are failures as the lords of anything. The majority of people in wealthy nations claim morals, which include compassion for others. But tonight one billion people, a fifth of our species, will go to sleep malnourished.

It seems we either do not care despite our words, or sincere compassion is neutralised by governments and cultures in need of change. Wars are still fought over land, gods, and all things no one can ever really possess. We allow murder, oppression and neglect every moment.

Behind all this waste is a common element: division. Division is at the core of all our evils. It both enables and motivates the problems the problems of our species. Before one group can slaughter another group there must first be groups. If humankind was not chopped up into all its fabricated categories then war, prejudice and neglect would be very difficult, if not impossible. But perhaps we are just too different. Maybe hate and mistrust are inevitable.

I walk past a Chinese boy, perhaps 10 years old, sitting at the side of the wall. Our eyes meet and I smile, more out of reflex than anything else. I expect, in return, nothing more than blank stare. Then it happens. The boy runs up behind me and grabs my hand. I look at him confused. We share no common language so he just smiles and points to a high spot on the Wall. His mother approaches us and smiles. In silence we all find trust. We walk about half a mile along the Wall. We point out sights for each other and smile. We even race a small distance.

So, on top of the world�s most famous wall, a little boy pushes through walls, he had not yet learned to respect. Language, race, country, colour, none of that mattered. He wants to be my friend. He is a charismatic little fellow, and his smile will always be with me. I am sorry that he will never know how happy he made a tired travellers that day.

Glory and Shame. Touching the cool marble of the Parthenon, should be a proud moment for a man with some European heritage. And it is. I stand on the ground Aristotle, Socrates and Plato once walked and feel the glory of ancient Greece electrify me. At the edge of the Acropolis, I look over modern Athens and enjoy the memory of gifted men and women who thousands of years ago helped shape my world. But all of this pride means little, framed by ignorance and denial.

Anyone on this planet should be able to stand where is stood and fell the same joy. We all share a relationship with the ancient Greeks, as we do with every culture. I am proud of all human accomplishments, regardless of geography or the colour of the nearest flag. I am also ashamed of all human failures, regardless of how far removed I may seem to be.

I share in the beauty of the Taj Mahal, perhaps the world�s most beautiful human-made structure. But I must also accept guilt for the children, begging in its shadow. The human connection is broad and deep.

This honesty of perception is applicable to all peoples and places. �Blacks� of the Americas and Caribbean today are right to feel special compassion for slaves, the �family� before them that suffered so much. But they should also feel shame and sorrow for the slave master. He too was a family member.

This stand for unity is not merely hopeful optimism. It is science. DNA samples, collected around the world by geneticists and physical anthropologists over the last several decades, reveal the early migrations out of Africa and current relationships among people.

Potentially, an important feature of this DNA work is that superficial features, such as skin colour and hair, are confirmed as only minor, recent adaptations that have little to do with who is closely relate to who. For example, Australian Aborigines were thought to be close relatives of dark Africans, based on appearance. But the DNA says different. Aborigines and sub- Saharan Africans are distant relatives. South East Asians are the Aborigines next of kin, despite appearance. Race, it is now clear, is only skin deep.

Visions. The short-sighted believe we are more divided than ever. They say unity is a hopeless dream. It is not. I believe, in time, our many similarities will overcome our few differences. I have hope because I saw barefoot people boarding jets in Papau New Guinea. I felt warmth from a boy in China that wanted to be my friend.

I have hope because I circled the world and upon returning to America, the country of my birth, could not order lunch in a restaurant because no one spoke English. Our species is mixing today, as it always has an always will. The more we make contact the closer we come to realising we are one. We will reach that day I am sure of it.

Our growing awareness of nature demands we acknowledge our planet�s ecology as a profoundly connected web of life. Our growing awareness of ourselves demands that we acknowledge our species as connected and interdependent, both biologically and socially.

Before the journey, I believed in the unity of humankind because I felt it in my heart and books made a good case for it. But now I know, for I have travelled far and looked into the eyes of strangers that were not. Earth is my home, and people my family.

Guy P. Harrison Home Page