Welcome back to Infinite Threads.
I’m your host, Bob — and today’s message comes from one small line that hit me like a lightning bolt.
A single sentence from a new Apple TV+ series called Wondla —
spoken by a being known as the Heart of the Forest.
They said:
“No Them. Only us.”
And I felt it deep in my bones.
It’s strange how a single line can unravel years of division.
Cut through the fog of “them” and “us.”
Undo everything this world has tried to make us believe about who’s worthy, who belongs, and who deserves love.
That sentence —
“No them, only us” —
is the entire mission of this podcast, spoken in four perfect words.
We are raised in a world of categories.
That country.
This skin color.
Those politics.
That belief.
Their fault.
Our way.
We are taught to sort.
To separate.
To stay close to what looks like us and defend ourselves from what doesn’t.
And so we build a mythology of “others.”
And we use that word to create a comfortable distance —
from suffering,
from responsibility,
from connection.
But let me ask you something.
What happens when that distance disappears?
When you sit across from someone who’s supposed to be the “other”
and you hear their story?
Their heartbreak?
Their hope?
What happens when you realize they cry like you cry?
Laugh like you laugh?
Bleed, grieve, fear, and love…
just like you?
Suddenly “they” become we.
The category collapses.
And what’s left… is truth.
“No them. Only us.”
That’s not just poetic.
That’s survival.
Because as long as we believe in “others,”
we justify cruelty.
We allow hunger.
We explain away war.
We build systems that leave people behind and say,
“Well, it’s not happening to us.”
But if there’s no “them”…
Then we can’t turn our backs.
Because it’s us.
It’s always been us.
Every person you’ve ever seen as foreign, strange, suspicious, or wrong…
is another angle of the human experience you haven’t fully lived yet.
That doesn’t mean we have to agree with everything.
It doesn’t mean we stop having boundaries or values.
But it does mean that beneath all of it —
beneath the masks and walls and wounds —
there is only one family. One species. One breath.
And if we treated each other like that was true…
what would change?
Think of the power of this shift.
No more “illegal people.”
No more “lost causes.”
No more “those people.”
Just humans.
Just us.
Every single time.
I know some folks might say,
“Well Bob, that sounds nice, but some people really are dangerous. Some people really are wrong.”
Sure.
There’s harm in the world.
There are things we need to challenge and change.
But here’s the truth:
You can confront harm without creating enemies.
You can resist injustice without dehumanizing the people who cause it.
Because the moment you decide someone is “other,”
you give yourself permission to stop loving them.
And love… is the only thing that transforms.
Maybe this is the episode where you decide to let go of the distance.
Maybe this is the one that helps you soften — not just toward strangers,
but toward people you once called enemies.
Maybe you stop asking,
“What’s wrong with them?”
and start wondering,
“What happened to them?”
Maybe you stop looking for “others” to blame…
and start building the world where we all belong.
I’ll leave you with this:
No them.
Only us.
So let’s start treating each other like we’re all part of one great body —
some hands, some hearts, some voices, some wounds.
But one body.
And if one part hurts,
we all hurt.
If one part heals,
we all rise.
We are not enemies.
We are echoes of each other,
learning how to love again.
Thank you for listening.
And thank you to Wondla, and to the Heart of the Forest,
for reminding me of something I already believed — but needed to hear in just that way.
I’ll see you next time.
And until then —
Let your love reach past every label.
Let your hope include every heartbeat.
Because there are no others…
Only us.
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