Postcard from Florida: The White Lotus

It is the end of April. The white lotus flowers on my lake have started to bloom. They open up in the morning. Seeking light and pollinators. Seeking warmth. Then they close. To protect themselves. To see the white spots emerge in a sea of green water lilies looks like a miracle. It is a reminder that we need to open our heart and our mind to the world.

I see it everywhere. People struggling to apprehend the world as it is. In its ugliness and its cruelty. Better to keep ourselves closed, they think. It feels like protection. But it is more like shrinking. It applies not just to people, but also to groups, organizations, and entire cultures. I have a theory about it. I call it Closed minds, Closed hearts, Open minds, Open hearts.

I remember being the outsider. First when I came to the United States as a young man. I was a Captain in the French Air Force posted on a US Air Force base as an exchange officer. One Frenchman surrounded by 6,000 Americans. I was either a curiosity, a welcomed stranger, or the foreigner who might or might not be trusted. Looking back, I now understand one thing: a closed mind shuts down the heart. Several years later, I was representing my country as a diplomat in the Middle East. An alleged Christian among a majority of people following the precepts of Allah. A European in a country who broke the chains of colonialism 75 years ago. For some, it was even worse. I was a non believer. Labels, separation. It is so easy to see a person who is different as someone to fear.

I am also an engineer. Facts matter. In the USA, that makes me different too, at times. I remember arguing with a neighbor about the rotundity of the Earth. I am one of the few lucky people that can attest to viewing it first hand. I once flew in the back seat of a Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft at sunset. Exceptionally, that night, we kept climbing and climbing to the edge of the flight envelope. 60,000 feet. From a viewpoint located 18 kilometers above the ground, the Earth is not flat. The curvature is obvious. I remember seeing half of France, cut down by a single line from North to South. The Western part was still bathed in sunlight, all the way to the Atlantic ocean. In the Eastern part, one could see the lights of major cities already covered by the night. By the end of the flight, everything was dark. This experience reinforced my stance on religion. I used to tell my kids that the Bible was written by people who knew for sure that the Earth was flat. Even today, among the 45 different denominations of Christian faith in the USA, people refuse to accept basic science or the theory of evolution. Closed minds. It leads to racism, sexism, xenophobia and all kinds of “us versus them” views on life.

Still, I am hopeful for a new generation of children, who have a new generation of role models. Right now, as we speak, a senior officer of the French Air Force is flying over us, inside the International Space Station. Her name is Sophie. She went to the French Air Force Academy, just like I did, and became an engineer, just like I did. She sends videos to the world with her long red hair floating over her head in zero gravity as she describes her experiments on board. It takes an open mind to go into science. I imagine that, through her analytical mind, she sees the world as one unit. That she sees all of us as one people, based on spaceship Earth, hurling through the universe, and not as billions of human beings separated by race, sex, religion, or citizenship. I am sure she can see no borders from up there. I would like to believe that looking at the world this way would also open one’s heart.

We need to open up our hearts, just like the white lotus, and let the warmth set in.