And It Was Beautiful...

By: Tim Shriver

Last week I returned home from the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin Italy. The Opening Ceremonies were held in the Inalpi Arena in Turin on Saturday, March 8th. The athletes processed into the arena one country at a time to wild cheers from the crowd (athletes from Ukraine received an especially powerful ovation). Special Olympics athletes spoke, flags were raised, beautiful dancers performed and Aloe Blacc sang as the whole arena danced. 

The Special Olympics flame of hope was lit by Ilianna Simeonidi from Italy and pretty much everyone was either in tears or in awe or both. It was transcendent. 

Outside the arena, there was a police officer responsible for traffic and security for the athletes. He wasn’t able to see any of the ceremony, but when the ceremony ended a production staffer asked him: “How did it go out here?” The officer took a breath and answered, “I just saw the whole world pass before my eyes.” After a pause, he added, “and it was beautiful.”

“It was beautiful.” 

As soon as I heard his description, I knew exactly what he meant. The whole world was beautiful. He saw it. Somehow, it was all clear to him.

But even though I knew what he meant, I also wondered how he saw it so clearly. It feels so difficult these days to see beauty. Isn’t he, like me, bombarded with news of wars and killings; of name calling and threats? Did he not realize that all those athletes came from places that often discriminated against them and even ridiculed them? How did he see beauty?

I’ll never know for sure, but I think it was a gift of the moment. To see beneath the surface of difference and brokenness to the beauty within another human being takes a special set of eyes—or maybe more accurately, a special heart. Maybe beauty can only really be seen heart to heart when we unseat the distortions of bias and fear.  Somehow, that happened for that officer. And I want it to happen for me too.

I’m guessing we all have these moments when we can see the beauty within others—those who pass by on the sidewalk, those who line up at the supermarket, those who’ve crossed jungles and war zones and despair with babies on their hips. Sometimes, we can just see beauty and dignity radiating from within. Call it common humanity or the sacred within or just beauty.  But can’t we all see it at least sometimes?  

The Special Olympics movement is a classroom of beauty and dignity, and my hope and prayer is that the world will learn from it. Our dignity movement is an effort to bring that same message of beauty and dignity to our day-to-day relationships, and I hope it can inspire us the way Special Olympics inspired that police officer last week. And I’m more convinced than ever that, like him, we’re all starving for that experience.

Just this week, our colleagues at More in Common released a new report that reminds us that the vast majority of us are hungry for deeper connection. “We found that a majority of Americans are not only interested in connecting across…lines of difference, but feel a responsibility to do so,” the report suggests. The challenges are, nonetheless, significant. “Americans are increasingly disconnected and divided, reporting record high levels of loneliness and distrust in both institutions and each other…”

That’s where the Dignity Index and Dignity Skills can play a significant role. In the last week alone, we’ve worked with another superintendent who wants to make his school district a “Dignity District" (more on this soon). We’ve worked with The University of Utah to launch a new effort to strengthen the study and teaching of dignity (very exciting!). And we’ve worked with a new multi-national industrial company that wants to bring dignity to its corporate culture. All of these partners have one thing in common: they want to create a culture that makes it normal to see the beauty and dignity in each other. 

This is going to take both insight and skills—skills like curiosity, listening, and empathy. More in Common’s pioneering report notes the importance of making these kinds of practices into patterns. “Other important predictors of interest (in connecting) include how often someone is already connecting (i.e. the frequency of interacting across difference), social curiosity, connective responsibility, and sense of local community belonging.” 

Belonging, curiosity, connection: that sounds like the conditions that existed for that police officer when he saw the whole world and knew it was beautiful. Maybe it was just a glimpse but maybe it was a glimpse into a reality we’re all starving to experience—a reality revealed when we drop the assumptions that distort our view, a reality that we can only see from the heart.

I think we’re all starving for the chance to see the world pass before our eyes and see it as beautiful. So let’s create our own moments of dignity and beauty by seeing the beauty and dignity in the other. And then perhaps, by seeing it in others, we will not only open the eyes of the other but open ours too.

Tim

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Watch “A Better Ratio” with Tom Rosshirt 🎥

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The Dignity Movement in Action

Weber State University Intermountain Sustainability Summit
On Thursday, Madeleine and David went to the Intermountain Sustainability Summit to talk with people about “sustainable conversations” through the Dignity Index. A highlight was the keynote speaker’s insight that strong policy convictions are important—but advancing meaningful projects depends on listening to even those who hold opposing views.

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2025 MWEG Spring Conference
Tami and Alexa were on the campus of Utah Valley University this week, at a Women Peacemakers conference hosted by Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Tami introduced the Dignity Index, emphasizing that for many faith communities dignity is more than a principle—it’s a path to peace rooted in seeing the divine in every person. Alexa engaged with the conference attendees and made several new connections with women leaders in other states. A special treat was running into Jasmin Kreimer from More in Common who attended the conference from Los Angeles. 

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