Our bodies have 3 billion genetic building blocks, or base pairs, that make us who we are. And of those 3 billion base pairs, only a tiny amount are unique to us, making us about 99.9% genetically similar to the next human.

While cities across America were reacting with righteous indignation to the murder of George Floyd, I was with them in spirit while splitting and stacking an oak tree that fell on my land.

Some of the forked tree sections were too difficult to split by hand with my eight lb. maul. I used my chainsaw to cut part way through the tough and twisted grain. I then used the maul to finish splitting the round.

While stacking one particular piece, I stopped in my woodshed and moved the piece around watching the way the light, coming in from the side, played with the different textures between the sawn and split portions of the wood.

I immediately carried the piece from woodshed to studio. While setting up light and camera I followed one growth ring of grain from the top to the bottom. At the dividing line between split and sawn it became so visually different.

With so much genetics and biology that we share in common, how does that one tenth of one percent cause hearts and minds to split into hate and destruction?