I'm going to resurrect an idea here that most people believe died a merciful death years ago.
I'm going to resurrect the notion of an "American melting pot."Melting pots are small bowls where metals are blended. Our national leaders once felt American was like that.
In the American melting pot, Jews, Indians, blacks, whites and all others would meld together -- learn to embrace the same American dream -- to reach for the same goals, share the same values and hold to the same history.
But the melting pot turned out to be a jar of oil and water.
Not only have various groups separated over the years, they've forged new identities for themselves.
The only melting pots these days are the ones filled with nacho cheese at the 7-11.
But I'm not giving up on the idea.
I'm simply giving it a new twist.
If I've learned one thing in this job, I've learned an American melting pot is indeed possible -- on a spiritual level.
We still have the ability to blend spiritually.
And I'm basing that notion on a lifetime of interviews.
I've discovered when people become spiritual, they tend to "broadcast" on the same wave length. We all tune in to the same frequency.
And all those spiritual "broadcasts" have an eerie similarity to them.
Years ago, when I interviewed the Sioux sundancer and spiritual leader Manny Twofeathers, his openess, warmth and tone of voice had a familiar ring.
It reminded me of the voice of LDS scholar Truman Madsen on the day we spoke about things that matter in the dimly lit lobby of the Deseret News.
And both conversations sounded like a heart-to-heart talk I shared with born-again Valerie Haarsma of the Salt Lake Seminary.
Spiritually, they were in the American melting pot.
And that melting pot is not a club.
No "club house" could ever house it.
It is not a movement.
No bylaws could control it.
It is not a point of view.
No philosophy could explain it.
In fact, the spiritual melting pot is not a pot at all. It more like a grand, sacred river flowing through the nation.
And everyone is invited to bathe in it.
The river flows through Boise, Idaho, where I interviewed Bishop William Weigand back when he was a parish priest known as "Father Bill."
It runs by the Monastery of the Visitation in Minnesota where Sister Peronne Marie quietly translates the writings of the holy souls of Catholicism.
It goes by the home of Jenny Tingey in Brigham City, one of the most tender souls in town.
And the river ran through the front door of the late LDS historian Leonard J. Arrington, one of the most solid and sane men I've ever known.
Is it just a pipedream to believe the rest of America could jump in -- just another starry-eyed verse to the John Lennon song "Imagine"?
In the Old Testament, the pipe dreams of Joseph actually came true. And he was able to bring the Jews and Egyptians together.
Thousands of years later, that same pipe dream came true for Jimmy Carter when he helped Egypt and Israel to sign a peace treaty.
And I think I know how Carter -- the pious Sunday School teacher from Plains -- was able to do it.
He used prayer, scripture and heartfelt converstation to get both leaders to bathe in the grand, sacred river.
If rival nations can bathe together in that river, couldn't the people of a single nation at peace?
The list of souls in this column shows many are already have.
All that's needed for others to join is an invitation.
The idea of an American melting pot is alive and well in the country today.
Come on in.
The water's fine.