On this beautiful day, the 4th of July, pretty much every American cheerfully celebrates Independence Day in this proud country. I will join the celebrations by celebrating the need for the opposite; dependence.
Personally
You see, the world we humans grew into revolves around general relativity. The quality of our lives dependent not on how much we can free ourselves but instead on how we operate in relationship to each other. Skillful dependence rather than isolating independence becoming the most accurate measure of the quality of life.
In America today, I see more people severely damaged, hopelessly enslaved by, and stuck in a rut of feigned independence than people embracing, curating, and, if need be, fighting for the calibration of interdependence to grow together.
And that kind of independence, my dear friends, is the bane to human existence.
Nationally
The historical remembrance of Independence Day ought not to take away from the reality of how the quest for independence has served many of us poorly.
Twenty-five percent, yes a quarter, of our children in the public school system of the freest and most independent country in the world are on school-supplied food support. Almost sixteen percent of extreme poverty exists amongst Americans, causing one-third less brain development in children as observed in brain scans, making those children more dependent on others for the rest of their lives.
Seventy percent of Americans are chronically dependent on prescription drugs, mostly antidepressants. Loneliness has now surpassed obesity as the number one cause of illness facing Americans.
I ask you, how is independence really working out for us?
Internationally
We live in an interconnected world, in which no longer merely American interests prevail, but the safety and well-being of all humans will affect ours.
Meaning, the celebration of our independence as a country is a pyrrhic victory when such independence does not promote the skillful dependence on the sovereignty of others. As a human species, we simply cannot successfully adapt to nature’s entropy unless we, in our own ways, become an integral part of and benefit from the fractal expansion of all of humanity.
The Dance
We must learn to dance to the well-played music of dependence rather than independence. A dance that serves not just the vile-maxim of our personal interests but systematically helps everyone to do better.
The world is looking to us for answers. Answers that must include their interests as well as ours. To remain proud of ourselves, we must develop a clear script of relational dependence as refined and proven as nature’s.
I wish you all a Happy Dependence Day!
