The Power of Common Ground
Frequently, the photographs that people bring to photovoice meetings help them to see similarities. When Aliya was invited to reflect on what she learned to see by having interfaith conversations using photographs her answer was straightforward: “I saw similarities.” She recalled one of the photographs she composed in response to the prompt: where do your beliefs, practices, and/or values show up in everyday life?
Photo 1. Aliya’s participant photo with the caption below.
“I remember I brought in a picture of flowers. I wanted to bring in a picture of a plant, but I had a bouquet of flowers I had taken a picture of, and I brought that in and I thought, ‘Gosh, everybody else’s picture’s going to be so different from mine, probably,’ right? But I saw a lot of pictures of flowers. I saw pictures of vegetable gardens. I saw pictures of the ocean. It was a lot of nature and I was like, ‘Wow, so I’m not the only crazy person that sees God in nature’” (Aliya).
Not only was this realization personally affirming, the photograph also opened a window to the lives of others in her discussion group. While sharing about the way(s) she “sees God in nature,” Aliya perceived that her flower photograph had a similar impact on at least one other person in her discussion group:
[At] the very first meeting there was a Christian woman . . . right next to me and she almost gasped when she saw my picture, and she goes, “Huh! That’s the same thing I think. When I look at flowers I think of God!” And she’s the one who had brought the picture of the vegetable garden kind of blooming. The vegetable garden has some plants and some were still blooming with the flowers on them. And she said, “That just reminds me of God.” And I think she was shocked. I was kind of surprised, but she was literally shocked that a Christian and a Muslim could have like the same thought process.”
Photo 2. “I cannot look at the intricate detail, spectacular beauty, and mind-boggling infinite variety of the natural world and not believe in a loving, generous, and joyful Creator God. How could such an awesome array have come from other than the divine, and how could any element of that creation not hold within it the divine spark of its Creator? To ‘consider the lilies of the field’ is to be filled with awe and gratitude daily—for all of Creation and for the tiny portion God has assigned for me to cultivate and celebrate” (Joani).
When she observed this reaction, Aliya perceived that the Christian woman at her table “hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to too many other Muslims. . . . I think she was surprised about how many things we do have in common.” Over the course of the meeting, Aliya recalled,
“We talked about kids and I said I’m worried about my kids sometimes. I want them to get through college, I want them to get a good job, I want them to be safe, and healthy, and make good choices, and not end up with the wrong people. And she said, ‘That’s the same thing I think about when I think about my kids.’”
It is not much of a surprise that photographs of nature would resonate across religious traditions. Seeing the natural world as the handiwork of God is quite common among religious people. Realizing that people from different traditions saw the world in similar ways was a meaningful experience for many of our participants. Beyond these common beliefs, perhaps of equal importance were the similarities of the human experience that also became visible. As Aliya underscored, even though “everybody in that room was a stranger, [they] had a lot of, not only faith-based things that were similarities, but just thoughts that were similar.” Not only did people like Aliya and her conversation partners realize there are basic truths that are shared among their different religions, it also occurred to them that they share many basic human experiences and concerns. Discovering shared perspectives like this helped Muslims and Christians to begin to see beliefs they held in common. The process of identifying with one another is aided by photographs, which serve as bridges between people who do not realize how much of the world they see in similar ways.
Activity 10
Now that you had several conversations about your beliefs, practices, and values, it is time to reflect on the ways these conversations may have helped you to discover common ground. What did you learn from your conversation partner(s)? Did any of the similarities you encountered surprise you? What do these new insights teach you about yourself?