On Coexistence (Or, Can't we all just get along?)

This is the bumper sticker I have on my car. It's been years now, and I'm always pleased when a stranger notices or asks about it. Yesterday, while parked at a red light, I noticed the woman behind me pointing to my sticker and talking to her passenger. I could actually read the driver's lips and saw her mouth "Jewish" as she pointed to the sticker. Then she held up a questioning hand as if to say, Don't know what the other stuff means.

Since the women in the car behind me were obvioulsy unfamiliar with the meaning of the sticker, I thought it would make a great blog post. I'm all about tolerance, but to appreciate my message, you must understand the symbolism. Here's the story...

Piotr Mlodozeniec is the Polish designer of the original Coexist design, which substituted the crescent moon representing Islam for "c", the Star of David representing Judaism for "x", and the cross representing Christianity for "t". Since then, the design has been expanded to cover all types of tolerance.

- for the letter "o", the peace symbol is substituted
- for the letter "e", a male/female symbol is substituted
- for the letter "i", a pagan/Wiccan symbol is substituted
- for the letter "s", a Chinese yin-yang symbol is substituted

All we need now is to color it like the rainbow flag to represent homosexuality, and the design becomes an international message of tolerance and hope.

(If you're interested in helping spread the word, you can do it here.)