#143: We Are Them, Not Just A Part Of.

I like the concept of interconnectedness. All things in the universe are somehow connected with each other. How is that different from being unified or, in other words, made into a whole?

Tom Peters, co-author of the business book «In Search of Excellence» wrote the following line in the summary of his new book «Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism» for Gapingvoid.

«They are not “part of us.” They are us.»

The moment I read it, I realized how important that statement was. It is great to be connected, isn’t it? And yet, can you go beyond?

You belong. But then you don’t like it anymore. The connection becomes a burden. Whoever or whatever you are connected with is being attacked. It means you have to take a position. You either defend or let go. Hence, you might choose to disconnect.

What do you when you are challenged as a whole? Disconnecting isn’t really an option. Walking away isn’t an option. Closing your eyes isn’t an option. Putting your ears on mute isn’t an option. You naturally have to face reality the way you see it as a whole.

We are told that reconnecting with nature is good for us. Connecting with others is no doubt good for our mental health. Tony Robbins goes one step further by suggesting that we should reconnect with ourselves.

Following the dreadful shooting of 12 staff of Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015, the slogan «Je suis Charlie» went viral overnight. People using the hashtag #jesuischarlie expressed their solidarity by claiming that the attack was against them and their freedom.

We can argue that anything happening on this planet doesn’t have anything to do with us unless it is directed against us personally. Although that sounds like a rather restrictive interpretation. I can’t really argue against it. It isn’t something I would want to rationalize, it must be felt.

It just makes me think how different our attitude might be if we were nature, we were humanity, we were gender or we were race.

I am not saying that such attitude would be easy to implement. It is just a thought experiment. However, some of our own actions would suddenly be directed against ourselves. An insult to someone else would hurt us.

We would certainly look at and, more importantly, see the universe differently.

We are the universe.