We depend on things. Things we never even consider.
This morning, when I went into my office, I settled in my chair as I always do. I was all ready for my morning of writing. I had my little thermos of coffee and a glass of juiciness.
I clicked on my computer screen to enter my password and thhhhwwwpppt. Black screen. Sudden reboot. White letters flash across the screen. “Oh God. What did those say?” Finally, that old familiar white apple appeared and my home screen came on in its cool blue light. A small box appeared telling me my computer shut down because of an error.
I noticed.
But it brought a couple of things to mind. The first is our dependency in life. On life. Throughout life. We rely on thousands upon thousands of people, even before we’ve had our breakfast. If we switch on a light, we have become reliant on all those people at the power plant. Not to mention everything it took just to get them there. The training, the teachers for the knowledge in their jobs, the fuel to gas their cars in the morning to take them to their places of work. Those people in the oil industry who found, manufactured, and delivered that oil for the fuel. The gas station attendant. All the thousands of people who worked on producing food, so that those people could eat their breakfasts, lunch, and dinners. The truckers who transported those goods. It goes on and on, and all we did was turn on our bedside lamp.
Yes, if we live in society, we are dependent on all that swirls around us. Incredibly. Everything building on the next.
The second thing I thought of was the message on my screen. “Your computer shut down because of an error.” It reminded me of us. Sometimes, not by choice, we are shut down because of an error. Sometimes, we get sick, and we have to stay in bed until we or well. Other times, people experience larger errors, ones that are life-altering or ending. Diseases such as Cancer, Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s.
There are other times when we shut down because of errors by our own accord. It is too much sometimes, for some people. They need to withdraw, to recede, to get away. They power off. Sometimes temporarily. Occasionally, they power off completely.
All of this reminds me that our world is so completely intertwined, everything relating to everything else. Every atom is connected in this mind-boggling expansive place. John Muir said it best, I think. “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
He knew.
Most people don’t realize this. I’ll tell you right now, any of those people crying for their right not to wear a mask has never even considered a higher thought such as this one. It is sad to think about.
But I must remind you now, we are hitched to them too. Unfortunate as that may be.
On the more brilliant and dazzling side of that, is that we are also hitched to a world of good, kind people. We are connected to the beauty in common daisies, or to the life force of the honey bee. To the stars in the heavens above. And I love this part of the dependency. I’ve come to rely on it.
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“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
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“There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.”
― Shannon L. Alder
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“Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.”
― Albert Schweitzer
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