Love is the expansion of the self to include the other, and that’s a different kind of revolution. There’s no one to fight; there’s no evil to fight. There’s no ‘other’ in this revolution.

Sometimes I like to peruse indiegogo and kickstarter to get inspired. What better way to find new ideas than to see what people all over the world are supporting through crowdfunding? One campaign I found tonight: a fully funded $50,000 campaign to produce a documentary called Occupy Love. The video below is a beautiful statement about love, connection and the changes the Occupy movement is seeking.

Indirectly, it speaks to my motivation to pursue cross cultural connection. The narrator makes a compelling point about a loss of intimacy in our society because we don’t need one another. We pay for everything we need rather than depending on a particular person to provide for us. If one person can’t provide our food or clothing or housing, we can pay someone else to provide it. But when I choose to go abroad to an unfamiliar place, where I function without the comfort of language or people I know, I succumb myself to dependence. I need the grocer to explain the change I owe, I need the bus driver to tell me which road to take, I need the friendly stranger to ask me what I’m looking for when I seem lost. Travel is the marker of independence, but that independence comes from asking for help. With travel, it seems every connection becomes an important one, a necessary one.

In this discussion the narrator explains, “Only joint creativity and gifts create intimacy and connection.” Traveling requires creativity, collaboration, vulnerability, empathy. These are the components of intimacy. And even though travels are fleeting, my exposure to those elements helps me gain deeper and more fulfilling connections.

Part of his final message is that the future is a place where we all live meaningful lives because we are in service to one another. Your happiness is my happiness, and vice versa. What deeper way to experience this service than to love and trust a foreign stranger–whether that stranger is a child in Cambodia or a member of the 1%?

Give it a watch and let me know what you think.