In the interview for AllatRa TV within the framework of The Universal Grain project, residents of the Michigan city – Larena, Eric and Kaya, Stephen, Douglas, Craig and Tim – shared with participants of ALLATRA IPM, their opinion about what true love is, what unites all people in the world and how important it is today to talk about morality, friendship, kindness, love and mutual understanding.
"THE UNIVERSAL GRAIN" First Film “THE CHOICE”
FOR CREATIVE SOCIETY! International press conference on ALLATRA platform. June 22, Atlanta, USA
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Reporter: What would you say unites people all over the world regardless of nationality, religion, race, age?
Larena: I say love. Just, you know, just love, really is… I love seeing families together. This is a great family venue. I love seeing the families and the moms, and the dads. I just saw the dad walking by.. It’s like a Kodak moment, you know, he’s holding a baby.
Eric and Kaya: I think.. I think interacting. I think interacting is the key thing. You know, we all bleed, you know, we all breathe, we all have to eat and, you know, you could be down and have a very, very rough day and all it takes is just somebody, just to say - "hey, how are you?" - and then, all of a sudden, your day just changes. You know.. and I say from everybody that I meet on an everyday basis all the time, it doesn't matter create, color, heritage. It doesn't matter to me. Everybody is the same to me.
Stephen: Commonality we have as human beings. And in different ways we all face the same challenges trying to wake up, do something for our families, for the people we care about and so continue to live life. That unites a lot of people.
Reporter: How important today to talk about morality, kindness, love in our society?
Eric and Kaya: I think it's a very key thing right now. You know, anybody could sell anything. You know, it doesn't matter. You could sell anything you want. You can lie about selling it or you can be genuine and if you're genuine – I'm not selling a product to you, I'm selling you me. I don't care about that. What I care about is gaining friendship. I want people to know that – "Hey, you know what I bought his glasses, because [it] wasn't the glasses, it was him. He's a good guy, you know. He! He, when I came up to him" – I think it's very important. I think it's very important in this world right now because everybody's so distant. You know, everybody's so technology-based now. I think it's very important that we bring back the communication, talking to one another, being able to interact. Interacting with people is much different than interacting with a cell phone. Because when you interact with somebody it brings this [points to his smile]. You know, everything that you do here on the phone you can't share that with you, I can't share that with her. But if I come up to her and I say: "Hey, how are you feeling today? You okay? – Good! – Good! – If you're not, let me know", – ask your cell phone to do that. (Ok.) So.
Douglas: Very hard for people today. It's the most divided I've ever seen it. So, it's really important for everybody [to] come together. We're under the same, you know, the same clouds and the same Sun. You know, just enjoy each other. Why go to the fighting? It's all gonna be for nothing anyway. Down the road, just you gonna forget, to forget about the present, you forget about who was there. Just enjoy yourself, you know.
Stephen: Morality it's important because that's part of the rules and ways we interact with each other. Friendship is key. It's very close with family. Whether we like it or not we're all from one family and we relate with other people. So there's all very important factors in human relationships.
Larena: My sisters and I get together once a month to make sure we keep our relationships going. We bring our children, so our children can know each other, know their cousins and all that good stuff. So I think it's… the family is very important.
Reporter: And.. How do we keep it going? How do we bring that mutual love and understanding into society today?
Larena: Well I think that religion has to come into it at some point because God is important. I'm gonna just take it to another level here. We need some God consciousness. That's what the whole world needs is some God consciousness to feel like there's consequences to what I do and how I treat people and you know what I say and look. So that's, that's what we need some God consciousness and it'll just be better.
Reporter: How important is it today to talk about friendship, kindness, mutual understanding?
Craig: Oh, it's always important I think anytime you have an open and frank discussion you can get to some place. Unfortunately I think in today's world because I don't like what you say I have to hate you. And I disagree with that. I think we need to have open and frank discussion. This country in this government was founded on an open and frank and meeting of the mind discussions and I think we've lost that over the years.
Reporter: How can we restore what each person can do in their place to restore that openness, that friendship?
Tim: Practice it in their everyday lives. It's pretty hard to get somebody else to do something you're not doing yourself.
Eric: I think to initialize friendship or to get any type of kindness out of anyone which you should start with us, a moral respect for someone else, use a smile, use a facial expression that actually expresses kindness to someone else and usually you will get responded with by that same type. So, I believe it's a really great thing that great body posture if your body language is accepting to someone else, you're actually gonna have a way better conversation with someone else and that's how you get way better friendship and once you get into the friendship part of that being loyal having other morals such as respect, trust being a trustworthy friend I think is another thing. Also just acts of communication and kindness just to keep that thing going it's what's needed today. And I think especially in the country that you're in now, I believe that, yes. It is something that might be struggled in some situations but as long as everyone has the respect and kindness towards one another any relationship can happen. Everyone is willing to make the effort to make that happen. So, it just means to make happen.
Reporter: What is true love in the highest sense?
Larena: I think true love is unconditional love. I think that love, it should come from within. You know, when you love something and you love somebody there's no question. You shouldn't have to think about it. When somebody is in a dire straight or somebody's not... or just somebody you see somebody. And when you bend a corner you could be having the worst day of your day and you see that person or you see that thing, see true love. Everybody always asks me, they say: “ It's true love!”. "A person?" Absolutely not. Why would it be a person?... A true love! Could be I have a true love of art. You know, you just give me a pencil and a pen. I was in a bad mood, now I'm great, because look what I did, I created something to make somebody else smile, but at the same time I smiled. So, now you kill two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking. Okay, so I mean that's what I feel. I feel true love comes within, you know. So, a true love could be anything. It could be from the people just walking to anything you do in life that you love... like you love doing this. You like interviewing people, you get to meet all different Creed's cultures, kinds, everywhere. What does it do for you? Makes you feel good. You get to hear things differently from a different standpoint. So, I believe that's it. True love is something that you wake up wanting to do every day. So, now is it a person? Sure, it could be a person, could be a place, could be a thing. It doesn't matter. Whatever makes an individual happy. And I think true love is something that you follow. It's something that you always do and no matter what situation you're in. True love will help you get to where you want to go. That's what I feel.
Stephen: I think true love is kind of unconditional. You know, you don't love the person because they're the prettiest, so you don't love them because they're the richest, you know, you love them because... I've been married like 40 something years and so... we're friends, you know. And you just love the person!
Tim: Oh, it's exciting! It relaxes the body. It's a lot of energy when you love, and you think about nothing else except enjoy the moments.
Reporter: ALLATRA TV has good news where we're talking about kindness, friendship, unification between people. What do you think, it is important today for other stations and channels showing the same programs where they’re talking about something good and not only talking, but good in action, Which is going on everywhere?
Tim: It is actually so prevalent in today's media, how the negative things rise at the top. There are the things that make the cutting of our news posts that keep people up at night. These breaking news are always so negative. Allatra TV could be the forefront of what makes people positive, get them right for the day. As well as having an upbeat, positive attitude to start the day, can make a whole world of differences for relationships that you have that day, whether it be making new ones, continuing old ones. Having a positive attitude that Allatra TV could bring you by having the positive news available is crucial. It's very crucial. It could change the way relationships are made from here on out if all media was so positive.
Reporter: Thank you so much! It was great!