Peculiar Destinies

I read this today from Howard Thurman: “Every person thinks that it is his peculiar destiny to have the ideal come true for him.”  It strikes me that this thinking is at the heart of all conflict, perhaps all troubles with the world.  That is, despite clear evidence that known inhabitants of this universe are not clairvoyant, and as John Andrew Holmes noted, that “the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others,” each of us envisions a “peculiar destiny “and thinks/acts toward that end.  It’s kind of easy to see how this might not end well absent some radical rethinking.  Which is perhaps where Ken Burns is headed based on this quote from a recent interview: “The thing I’ve learned is that there is no ‘them.’ It’s just us.”