Let’s Celebrate Our Interdependence!

Today in the US we celebrate our Independence as a nation. But it makes me think …as people, we should have a day to explicitly celebrate our interdependence, to purposefully celebrate our love for family and friends and recognize the reality that as humans we are a deeply social species.

In that spirit, here are a quote and a couple of poems that resonate with me.

Mia Birdsong

Here is a quote from Mia Birdsong 's book “How We Show Up” that starkly contrasts American mythology and people’s lived reality:

“The do-it-yourself-ness of the America dream narrative … doesn’t work for anyone because none of us is self-sufficient. Interdependence is part of who we are as people. We are fundamentally wired to need others.”

Cate Gowans

Gowan’s poem “When We Gather” reminds us of the richness we each bring when we meet. Our full lives exist in the moment.

When we gather together / We are the sum of all our journeys / From the wave as we left home this morning / To the coffee queue at a train station / Or the novel we’re half way through but left at home.

When we gather together / We are the result of all our requests, agreements, and favors granted / A willingness to postpone, accommodate and work around things / A quid pro quo or trade-off that needed some negotiation / A sacrifice that in the end we choose to make.

When we gather together / We are a mesh of all our hopes and motivations / Agendas seen and unseen, intentions fixed and emergent / The call forward from wistful dreams of the future / The backward glance to what has brought us to this point.

When we gather together / We bring all the versions of ourselves / Confident and standing back, vital and exhausted, robust and bruised / Trusting that the weave that is the sum of our parts / The warp and weft of our human fabric.

When we gather together / We assemble / We honor the whole of our arrival / The whole of who we are and can be / We step in, take part, and celebrate.

Vikram Seth

In his powerful and moving poem “All You Who Sleep Tonight”, Seth captures the universal pain of being alone.

All you who sleep tonight / Far from the ones you love, / No hand to left or right / And emptiness above -

Know that you aren't alone / The whole world shares your tears, / Some for two nights or one, / And some for all their years.

While those of us fortunate enough are basking in the love of our families, it would be good to pause and recognize that others are not as lucky and to recommit to improving life for all.

Photo ? Rajiv Mehta