At first glance LUCA stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor. It is by scientific standards the origin of life on Planet Earth and the first single celled organism from which all of life evolved. The proverbial and microbial Eve.  With this broad scope, we humbly look at our beginnings on this earth as cells that divided and divided again, creating life through millions of years of evolution, including you.  From this perspective there should be no difference - no disjointed hierarchy of gender and race. But somehow through countless years, societies evolved, fell apart and structures were created that no longer adhere to the unifying principle of LUCA.  

 

The fabric of society is reflected in the stories we tell.  It is our current human mythology.  And when this ‘mirror’ is a sliver of the population, countless voices are not heard.  A worldview is out-weighted by a perspective that does not represent the entire picture.  Stories can bring equality - they allow others to step into someone else’s shoes.  But when the shoe doesn’t fit, there is a feeling of being unseen and unheard and a personal experience not matching the world we live in.  

 

It is time to reintegrate the principles of LUCA where there’s equal weight to all our perspectives so systems of oppression - top down systems that rely on the dominance versus the collective success of each individual - can fall away.  There must be a willingness to peel back our own layers of privilege to see how we can step in to serve in roles that are mutually supportive.  We can also rely on facts and transparency as rudders to help steer the ship.  We can examine how many diverse storytellers there are and what are the revenue streams.  This can be applied to race and gender as well.  We must also personally reflect on our own choices with integrity.

 

There is a deep current here rising.  It is a current that is calling into question the system it’s been channeled through  It is saying "there is a different brighter world I and my communities want to live in." 

And with that - these voices - storytelling, media and equality are required.  This is 'why LUCA matters.'