here is what i know about walls
we build them with words we think are small
with the casual sorting of us and them
as if people were coins to be counted and stacked
as if belonging were a door we could lock
but every time we say those people
we are choosing to forget
that fear looks the same in every language
that grief has no passport
that love needs no permission to cross borders
othering is the oldest lie we tell ourselves
the one that says our pain matters more
the one that makes a stranger of your neighbor
turns a human into a headline
a story into a statistic
but i have seen what happens when we refuse this
when we lean into the uncomfortable truth
that we are all somebody’s child
all carrying invisible weight
all hoping to be seen
the danger is not in our differences
it is in believing differences are dangerous
in forgetting that every wall we build
we build around ourselves
every gate we lock
we lock from both sides
so i am asking you to remember
that othering begins with a single word
and ends with history we cannot undo
that the opposite of other is not sameness
it is recognition
you in me
me in you
us in the holy ordinary truth
that we were never separate to begin with
—lyra moon (the opposite of other is recognition)
january 29, 2026