We’re Not As Independent As We May Think

Buddha (Photo credit: eschipul)

Sometimes we think that we are completely independent and that we don’t need anyone. We may live by ourselves, provide for ourselves, and take care of ourselves on our own. But even if you don’t “need” anyone, we must realise that we didn’t get to where we are today if it weren’t for people we have known and for some that we have never even met.

Before we were born, we needed doctors, friends, and family to care for our mothers until we were born. Then we needed to be taken care of as infants and toddlers to become children. Then as we become teenagers, we began to develop a sense of individuality and then think that we don’t need anyone in order to establish our “independence.”

Even if we find our “independence,” we are never entirely independent. Everything we own, everything we eat, is the labour of other people. Even if we create things, the materials that are made to create other things are from the labour of people or the dependence on nature.

The food you ate today was grown and prepared by different people. The computer you work on, the car or bus you rode on today, the shoes you wear, the clothes you wear were all manufactured by many different people. When we are sick, we go to doctors or the hospital and get treatment and medicine. If we have a job, our employer provides us money for doing work, which helps pay bills for services that companies provide us. Just think of your home. Your shelter was built from the hard work of many people.

We are all connected by many commonalities – one is our humanness and the other is our interdependence. However small we may think our contribution to society is we are nonetheless all connected.

The next time we think that we don’t need anyone to help us or to take care of us, we can think how many people have helped us in the past and who will continue to help us in the future, whether they know it or not.

It’s quite humbling.

With metta,