No Man Is an Island…

We often feel the pressure of people. But when we feel crowded or impatient with people, we should think how empty and dreary, how lonely and poor and purposeless life would be without those who live with us and around us. “If a wise man were granted a life of abundance… so that he had leisure to contemplate everything worth knowing,” said Cicero, “still if he could not communicate with another human being he would abandon life.” There are places where we could still live hermit-like and see less of others, if we wanted to, but we come together for convenience, for culture, for skills and services, for education and opportunity. We owe a debt to others for food, for medicines and those who administer them, for shelter and many services and safety⎯but more than this⎯for a broadening of life, for company and companionship, for just being there, for relieving us from sheer loneliness. And since this is so, among life’s foremost lessons is to learn to get along, and to see and consider what other people really mean to us. There can be too many at times. Life can become cluttered. People can be too impersonal. But there could also be too few, with poverty of ideas and emptiness. And with too few, we soon would sense not only our dependence on others, but the blessing of knowing there is someone there and the debt we owe each other for the mere fact of human feeling. At home, and world-wide, we need more appreciation and less fault-finding, with more awareness of what we owe to others. Despite all misunderstandings, despite all problems and impatience, we owe something to all the people there are, for the enrichment and variety of life, for the simple privilege of association. For this, and for much more, we owe each other kindness and care and consideration. “No man is an island,” wrote John Donne. There is no one who doesn’t need others, whether he knows it or not.