Our language is framed around the individual. Yet there is no singular you or me, just the appearance of individuality.
And while we are each gloriously distinctive, we are always us.
The us of hereditary and community. We didn’t birth ourselves, and our nurturing utterly relied on others.
And now, we are interdependent partners in so many diverse ways. I am not complete without you is lived out daily.
Yet even more than this, we are an integral part of an extensive living system. Indeed our life is mediated by the astonishing living network of species that is us. Yes, each one of us.
Knowing is so much more than what we observe and name.
We are plural.
I wonder what would happen if we allowed this to sink in?
~ Currently, I am enjoying dipping into the work of the biologist David George Haskell. Here’s a taster from 2017: Life Is The Network, Not The Self.