Interconnectedness
Sep 14, 2020
To fully understand altruism is to embrace interconnectedness. Both are at the heart of what it means to be a healthy, functioning human being.
Interconnectedness is swinging between you, the singular individual, and you, the minuscule piece of the entire whole. It’s a sophisticated, nuanced, complicated, and delicate dance.
And it’s not merely a dance with those in your immediate circle of contacts. It extends to everyone across the globe and to everything that lives upon it. It even extends beyond the world, encompassing the entire cosmos.
How is it possible that we are each simultaneously so essential and of absolutely no real consequence?
Holding these opposing ideas while stepping into possibility is a defining element of what it means to be human. It fuels the continuing journey to greater enlightenment.
From the cosmological perspective, each of us has no objective worth. Yet, while we are here, you have the opportunity to forge meaning and build identity of subjective value insofar as it’s considered to be by yourself and others.
Embracing this worldview is fundamental to connection, compassion, and cosmopolitanism. It fuels the essential human virtues of justice, fairness, and kindness. Interconnectedness enables you to prosper while you perspire over worthwhile human work.
The virtue of our pursuit of flourishing extends until it impedes anyone else’s ability to do the same.
And…
As inherently social beings, we should also protect and promote others’ efforts to realize their potential and deliver on their promise.
We are bound to each other. Each of us has a responsibility to contribute to the greater good.
It’s part of our natural function. To do good for others when we can and bear with them when we can’t.
I assure you that if you genuinely want to develop yourself while making things better with others, you must embrace what I’m sharing here.
We are all one.
I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Every ancient philosophical and religious tradition that endures today preaches this same truth.
Everything is interconnected.
Modern science is finding evidence of the same. Einstein, Sagan, and many others extol the virtues of a consciousness that permeates the entirety of the cosmos. We are part of the cosmos, and the universe is part of us.
Life is all fundamentally one.
What are the implications for you and your endeavor if we are, indeed, all connected? How does it help your efforts ripple out beyond your immediate spheres of influence?
This is an excerpt from Onward: Where Certainty Ends Possibility Begins.The audio comes from the audiobook edition available on Audible.
Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose
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