When you look at Earth from space, cultural differences disappear.

You don’t see flags flapping, walls standing, fences topped with barbed wire strung along hills.

You see a blue orb wreathed in white and green floating “touchingly alone” in infinite black space and you realize that all humans share a common home. And like all homes, humans share a common desire to protect this home, to keep it safe and beautiful.

On the ground, of course, this common home is carved up in millions of different ways both physically and symbolically. All sorts of borders from the national to the communal to the personal take what should be inclusive and open and make it exclusive and closed-off. The tendency towards “us vs. them” makes people forget about their shared bond.  

But things don’t have to be this way.

After all, the best moments of human achievement have always had a tendency to temporarily suspend divisions, to unite all humans in a common cause.

Perhaps the most unifying moments of all occur in outer space, when the earth is viewed from afar, when things are put into perspective from a glorious distance.

The film “Home” produced by Project Everyone founder Richard Curtis premiered at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival and gorgeous shots of homes throughout the world are coupled with views from space.

The effect is nothing less than breathtaking.

What an inspiring way to start the festival--and a great sign of things to come.