One of the great challenges and obvious paradoxes is reconciling the individual and the collective, between personal interests and the common good. Can we find a way to preserve our diversity while being united without being compromised?
The way to achieve this balance is through humility. When you sublimate yourself to a higher calling, your individuality unites, rather than separates, you from others serving a greater cause. Your powerful commitment permeates your being to the point of awakening self-interest, not allowing you to drift away from others. On the contrary, it helps build a unified community – diverse but united by a greater cause that transcends individual interests. However, it requires effort on your part as an individual to find this harmony in diversity. Here’s why the effort is worth it.
Beauty in Diversity
As beautiful as a color – let’s say, blue – can be, it still wouldn’t be defined as beautiful. No matter how sweet a musical note may sound, it cannot be called beautiful. Beauty is always a combination of many colors – like in a painting – whose balance and coordination create a lovely mosaic. Many different musical notes, when played the right way, generate a beautiful symphony.
Look at nature. The beauty of nature lies in the fact that many different systems work together with surprising synchronicity. Perhaps no better or closer example of this is ourselves. The healthy human body is a miraculous work of architecture. So many different limbs and organs, numerous systems and faculties. Not to mention the enormous amount of cells, hormones, chemicals, and DNA. And all combined as a fascinating unit, functioning as a synchronized whole. Something that impresses us (even subjectively) as so beautiful is the balance and 
Photo: shutterstock-Maders
symmetry of various – or many – different elements, all combined in the exact measure and composition.
Humility in Diversity
We are all one: together we form a single organism whose various cells, limbs, and organs complement and complete each other. One body includes both the sophisticated and refined brain and the functional “rough” foot; but ultimately, the brain is dependent on the foot just as the foot depends on the brain. The foot is dependent on the brain because its vitality depends on the brain. If the foot is dependent on the brain for its vitality and direction, the brain is dependent on the foot to achieve many of its goals.
The humble man looks at the bigger picture rather than the details, at the unified purpose of life on earth and not just at his function within that purpose. No matter how elevated his own role may be in relation to his peers, he is extremely limited without them. The knowledge that the work of his own life is incomplete without the contribution of his partner awakens feelings of humility towards him. And he recognizes that each “member” of the mutual body is indispensable, each component completes and enhances his interest.
Defining Humility
In this approach, humility is not equated with a feeling of inferiority. Rather, it stems from a sense of equality and mutual need. By becoming humble, you first realize that you should not feel superior about your unique qualities and strengths: all the virtues with which you have been blessed – whether a greater measure of intelligence, refinement, or spiritual sensitivity – are merely the tools granted to you to fulfill your mission in life. You recognize that your own achievements require the collaboration of others. Be humble in the fact that every individual on earth has a unique and irreplaceable role to play, and that each is as necessary as they need others.
Start by seeking harmony in diversity. What is your part in it? With what beauty are you contributing to the community symphony? Make a difference by doing something special.
Source: pt.chabad.org, by Simon Jacobson