We’re all in it together, said David Cameron after the Great Financial Crash of 2007/8, and, like me, you probably struggled to suppress a sigh of exasperation, for of course we’re not in it together at all: the rich go on getting richer, and the poor poorer. More affluent members of society weren’t touched for a moment by the hardship so many others were forced to endure. Yet, in a deeper sense, we are all in it together, for problems such as climate change and environmental degradation, plus countless others, do indeed concern us all, whether we like it or not. Sadly, many have lost sight of that today, one of the greatest malaises afflicting modern society being an obsession with self at the cost of the wider community and world. It’s all about ‘me, me’ today, rather than ‘us’. That’s what the following reflection, taken from my forthcoming book Seize the Day (due out in April ; see here for more info), explores in more depth.
Do not say ‘I’
In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of independence, then a recognition of interdependence. Henry van Dyke
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. Martin Luther King
Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. Mahatma Gandhi.
Do not say ‘I’,
but ‘we’.
Not ‘me’,
but ‘us’.
For we are in this together,
this business called life;
all a part of this world,
with its countless joys,
but also its manifold problems.
We can attempt to go it alone, of course,
but, in reality, everything we say, do and even think affects others,
for better or for worse.
My choices have repercussions,
my decisions shape lives –
by doing or not doing, I leave my mark on someone, somewhere.
Brother or sister, we are all their keeper,
just as they are ours,
none of us being entirely able to wash our hands of another’s fate.
For our paths interweave.
our destinies entwine.
The rainforest –
it burns to feed our consumer frenzy more than local needs.
Our warming planet –
it stems from lifestyles assumed as ours by right.
Our world of hunger –
it’s as much the result of economic injustice as of disaster and famine.
The blight of prejudice and discrimination –
it’s been fuelled by centuries of ignorance, selfishness and arrogance.
We have created the wounds together;
we must heal them together too,
for only in partnership can we hope to effect real change.
Never say, then, ‘the problem is mine’,
but rather, ‘the challenge is ours’.
Never, ‘I must somehow tackle it’,
but instead, ‘Collectively, we can make a difference.’