United in Diversity

As I've noted in my post about worldly reverence, Pokémon is something I appreciate from a different part of the world. It's something that has enriched this world and made many lives brighter, including mine. Yet through Pokémon, I'm also able to appreciate down-home values, that is, the values I grew up with. One of those values is diversity, being that everyone is of different characteristics and has different abilities. But through them all, everyone is also united by the fact that we are fellow people. This leads to an extended value.

That extended value is "unity in diversity", which in Sanskrit is "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" and is the national motto of Indonesia, as my birth country and current residence. Literally, everyone is "different but also one", as people and as a nation. It's a bit analogous and also an adjunct to "E Pluribus Unum" (Latin: out of many, one) of the United States, which I value as well, having resided there for several years, also as the place where I was introduced to Pokémon. The spirits are more or less the same: everyone is not (completely) the same in regard to individual characteristics yet the same as collective beings.

The creatures of Pokémon are the same way. Pokémon are all different; they're big and small, natural and elemental, animal-like and humanoid, with a stunning variety of types, habitats, capabilities, powers, and so on and so forth. That is diversity right there. But no matter what they are and what they do, they're all called Pokémon. That is unity in at least one sense of the word. And thus the motto is realized here too, being that Pokémon are individual creatures as well as the entire spectrum of all of those creatures; they are diversely united.

Through this, I'm reminded that people are all the same way. They are all different, but they are also all people, in particular part of a single nation. The extended value is one that is appreciable for being part of a single nation; if it can be evident through the creatures of a highly popular franchise, it should be evident for a nation too. I'd say I'm enlightened and enriched through Pokémon in this way. Together they're united, and together the people of this country are united, even with all their differences. We're united, and we show unity in diversity.

And yes, today is that day. Happy Independence Day to Indonesia.

One year ago: Red and White Philosophy