“I and I”

In my travels I have seen some of the world, though not as much as I had liked to, but enough to know that beautiful concepts still exist. Truth still makes its indelible mark on humanity, though most us have chosen to ignore its beckoning call. One thing I have developed in my meaningful excursions is a keen sense of self and this enables me to detect truth wherever it may reside. There are brilliant views of humanity that have been conceptualized by those seeking a higher standard and a higher calling to existence; one of those that have affected me the most is the Rastafarian concept of “I and I”:
 
I always wondered what they meant when they used this term, and though my friends and I would mimic them by referring to ourselves as “I and I”, the meaning of it eluded me. It was in my discovery of their culture in my late teens that I finally realized what I was saying when I used the term, and the truth was much more beautiful than the perception.
 
“I and I” though seemingly simple, is a complex term referring to the oneness of Yahweh and every human being. It is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, the oneness of two persons. So Yahweh is within all of us and we’re one people in fact, and it means that Yahweh is in all men. The term is used in place of “you and I” or “we” implying that both persons are united under the love of Yahweh.
 
It’s grammatically incorrect, but in Spirit nothing could be more right. And so when I do use it, which is normally in the privacy of my own thoughts, it carries with it a kind of Spiritual power that unites me with my “I-dren”, another Rastafarian term derived from the word “brethren”.
 
“I and I” long for the day when these concepts can become the prevailing testament of truth in society. When people will not view and define each other by our differences, but by the common bond that links each living creature – the love of the Supreme Being; Yahweh Almighty.