“No man is an island”

Is one of my favorite songs, then the  « A THOUGHT FOR TODAY » was the following.

 

Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves ... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom. -William James, psychologist and philosopher (11 Jan 1842-1910)

How beautiful.

This so succinctly explains the connections that we have among human beings as well, some links not being immediately seen, others more evident, but all just as valuable.

The ability to reach out and touch someone by word, look or gesture ; from the often seemingly trite and unimportant communications to the recognizably profound, we are linked.

Perhaps this is the greatest strength of social media – it allows us to re-connect with persons from our past – it re-inforces those ties with people living far away – it allows us to « meet » new people, « hear » new ideas and in general be « connected ».

Now this doesn’t mean that I intend to spend hours, or even minutes per day on my computer checking FaceBook and others (in fact some I have chosen to not pursue at all – one also needs to reserve most of one’s time for those who are physically present in our lives), however knowing that I can look and see what a high school friend is up to, to realize that on a next trip I might well plan on dropping in on another long-lost friend allows me

to know that I am not alone ; to also know that I can be of use to someone else in my life.

We are not islands – we are linked – a very comforting thought in the world’s business and seeming anonymity.

The "lone" cyprus

 

Redwoods 2011

Redwoods 2011