There are many 'radical' things going on in our world: a ten year civil war in Syria, bomb threats from North Korea, terrorism from ISIS, an extremely high amount of school shootings and children eating tide pods. Yes, these are radical in the sense that they are so extreme and most people can't explain or relate to them. When we think something is radical, we often think that it is 'not of us.' However, here is a radical act of our time that doesn't hit so far from home.

Looking someone in their eyes, accepting them for who they are, and listening to their story.

I do not mean lovingly glancing into your boyfriends eyes, that is the easy part. I mean looking into someone's eyes that you would not normally or who is different from you. We must take off our red and blue shaded glasses that see politics, our black and white glasses that see skin color and our righteous sunglasses that see religion.

We must simply see another person for who they are, no strings attached.

We are so attached to our phones, we forget to simply look up at people. We follow the political pages we agree with, unfollow the friends who we don't, and get our world awareness from our newsfeed. Our perspective becomes as narrow as our phone screens--only seeing what we want to. We have lost the art of openness and discovery through conversation, especially with those who challenge us.

Because in the end, it is not Fox news or CNN that will change your mind about something--it is someone else's story.

You can take refuge in the fact that no one's story is fake news. When we sit down and look into someone's eyes, we focus on our human connection and soon all of the other labels we have attached to them are clouded in our peripheral vision.

Marina Abramovíc, a famous performance artist from Yugoslavia, has shown the world the power of looking in someone else's eyes. In one of her performances called The Artist is Present, Marina simply sat in a chair with an empty chair across from her in the Museum of Modern Art. Visitors were allowed to sit in the chair across from her. Marina did not speak or move, but simply looked into the others person's eyes. The remarkable part is she did this for 3 months straight, for 8-10 hours a day, making 750 hours total. People began camping out over night just to see Marina. She didn't have to say anything, but looking into another person's eyes made them feel important and vulnerable.

So, I challenge you to seek out conversation with other people. And even more than that look into their eyes and try to see the humanity of everyone you encounter. In a polarized world of political tension, we are seeing people's labels, instead of their hearts. So I challenge you, every person you encounter, look into their eyes and see their vulnerabilities and strengths. Yes, it is radical. Yes, it will change the world.