If you are a super fan of This Is Us, you’ve come to appreciate the overarching theme which presents viewers with a holistic life view centered on love. Love of family. Love of life. Love of love in general.

The writers stick to the script of “all for one and one for all” every week like magic; each episode transcending gender, race, religion, politics, sexuality, mental health, etc. with beauty and grace. The we do life together mentality is an IV drip millions of us have become addicted to.

For as much divisiveness and polarization plaguing our country right now, the love affair America shares with This Is Us, begins and ends with unity. Not agreement, not accepting wrongs, not annulling one’s morals and principles, but unity in the form of respect for another. Imagine.

Humans are complicated. Relationships infinitely complex. Which makes communal existence a tangled mess of imperfect and misunderstood beings just trying to survive and find some purpose, joy, happiness along the way. And somehow, This Is Us helps us navigate these unpredictable waters in a way that leaves us with a heart full of hope week after week.

My God, do we need hope in this country. Which is why—call me dramatic because I am—we should be on our knees in gratitude for this show. If it takes a fictional drama filled with pretend stories to fan the flames of faith in humanity, so be it. If it takes writers, actors, and actresses to remind us we’re on the same team, team humanity, so be it.

We need something to fill our hearts, inspire our souls, remind us all people are worth fighting for. We need role models who encourage us to endure our suffering for a greater good, and examples of how we can both disagree and still love another person. Imagine.

Good stuff happens every day, all around us. Hopefully, most of us see love in action in a myriad of ways. The thing is, we don’t always hear or see the feel-good stories on a national stage. What a shame. Because if a make-believe story has enough power to move us to ugly tears and fill our soul with overwhelming love, imagine what real life stories could do to change the world?

And those real feel-good stories are out there. In abundance. So, perhaps the more impactful genius behind This Is Us, is a subconscious push to get us all moving in a healthier, loving, respectful direction, both as individuals towards ourselves and as a nation towards each other.

What if This Is Us was no longer a drama, but reality TV, played out behind cameras and across the nation on a regular basis? What if when people from other countries asked America, “is this for real?” we’d all be able to say, “yeah, this is us.” Imagine.