We Stand on Many Shoulders

Wherever we are in our lives is, to some extent great or small, the result of the influence of others. The further we travel on life’s path the less those influences may seem to matter, but they are always present even though we are not consciously aware of them.

The most apparent influences in our lives are parents, peers and educators, but others may have played a significant role during our development as a human being, or in school, or in our career. As we grow and develop these influences shape our opinions, our decisions and our outlook on life. As we mature, we form our own opinions, make our own decisions and frame our own outlook on life. Yet, we never completely separate ourselves from these early influences.

Many of our choices, even later in life, arise from our youthful inspirations. Our career may be the direct result of the influence of a parent or an educator. Our choice of life partner may arise from attractions or aversions carried over from past relationships. Our parenting style may be molded by repeating things we liked as children and avoiding those things we didn’t like. These influences may become less pronounced, and we may become less conscious of them – if we ever were – but they are always there to some degree. Often, we succeed because of them; many times, we succeed in spite of them.

Human history is a continually evolving process of people influencing the lives and future of others. Because of the choices and efforts of those who came before us we have progressed from the cave to the duplex, from chiseling marks on clay tablets to using laptop computers, from tapping our fingers and toes to symphony orchestras.

Regardless of how we perceive our world today, it is the result of a ongoing process beginning with our earliest ancestors and progressing through each successive generation. Their choices and actions are influencing our lives today, just as our choices and our actions will shape the lives of those who come after us.

Our lives are also being influenced in the present. Our partners, our parents and our children influence us every day, every moment. So do our friends, our neighbors and our coworkers. It is in these close personal relationships that we notice the influence of others the most. And, it is within our close personal relationships that our lives evolve from dependence to interdependence.

Interdependence, however, extends far beyond our personal relationships. The food that we eat, the clothes that we wear and the shelters that we sleep in depend on those far outside the small circle of personal relationships. For all but a few of us, the food that we eat does not just magically appear on our dinner plates. Others have cultivated it, harvested it, packed it, shipped it and perhaps prepared it. Many hands were involved in delivering the food to our plates. And many hands were involved in creating the plates and the utensils that we use to eat. This interdependence expands into every area of our lives. We rely on others to transport ourselves to work, pay the electric bill and remove our trash.

Even those who live seemingly independent lives by growing their own food, making their own clothes and building their own shelters are interdependent. They may be mostly independent of other human beings to a large degree, but they must still rely on nature to provide what they need for their subsistence living.

Recognizing the contributions of others in providing what we need to sustain our lives is an important step toward realizing just how far our web of interdependence extends. It develops our appreciation for the migrant farmers who pick our food, the workers who filter our waste products, and those who risk their personal safety to protect us.

In modern society, our web of interdependence reaches far beyond our neighborhood or our village. We live in an age of global interconnectedness where we rely not just on the person across the street to observe the building code and parking regulations, but also the person across the world to preserve the rainforests and harness destructive weapons.

In a global village, we rely on others who appear to be very different than us. These differences are necessary to some extent because they produce unique skills and characteristics that are necessary for the global village to survive. Such differences, however, are superficial because we are all innately human with the same basic needs and desires. For the global village to thrive we need to respect the differences and acknowledge the similarities. By doing so we come to appreciate the contribution that everyone makes in our lives.

That appreciation should extend to ourselves as well, for we are also making a contribution to benefit the lives of others, and we should do so in a responsible manner. The more we understand our interconnectedness, our shared humanity, the more effective our contribution will be. And the more we appreciate the contributions of our ancestors the sooner we will realize that we are ancestors too. We are followers in the continuum of history, but we are also leaders, entrusted with the future.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. carol

    My Paper Route – 8.27.17 Haibun

    so young!
    these birches
    dripping wet

    Each morning I greet, a whole new world. Walking the same route day after day, I must see the familiar afresh.

    the first
    red leaf–
    a new bush

    This moment washed clean by the rain; I pass beneath a bluer blue and stroll through greener greens!

    A brighter blossom here, two shinier berries there; neon fungus, wooshing water; and indescribably fresh air.

    I stride along, tossing out my haiku.

    one by one
    drops of rain
    move the stream

    1. billnad

      … one by one drops of rain move the stream … Indeed!

  2. spiral droplet

    Amen. So true and so hard for some of us to remember. Makes me think of an interview I heard the other day with Derek Drake (?), a white nationalist, raised that way, and how his parents and people on down the line into college, influenced him, and ultimately facilitated his change towards a different way of thinking, perceiving, and being, one of whom was a Jew who knowing who Derek was, still invited him for a meal and discussion. Our interconnected-ness is enhanced when we can set aside judgment and increase awareness of even the tiny things we do that may have a huge impact, so often, unbeknownst to us.

  3. Sid Sincher

    If everybody and everything is inherently entangled, through out time and space as you described, It would seem we are playing out a deterministic existence. Yet, in this moment, it feels like I am choosing my words with a certain amount of freedom, to some extent, independent of what came before or what might occur in the future.

    Perhaps there is a middle road between the predictable fall of “the row of dominos” and complete chaos. Perhaps how life happens, is as modern physics suggests, every possibility already exists, has always existed, and it is just consciousness that creates the patterns we call reality.

    Although, I do appreciate that our rich tradition of words as well as this interconnected world allows us to interact here. Still, I sense something alive, magical and new in this ephemeral moment that is free of past and future.

    1. billnad

      I’m not getting the connection between interconnectedness and determinism. Modern physics has taught us that everything is connected, so much so that we cannot even experience the same reality since the observer becomes a part of the observation. Would that not be the opposite of determinism? And if the observer alters reality simply by observing it, are we not creating the future?

      1. Sid Sincher

        In a world of vast interconnectedness, there are no boundaries between one thing and another. Even the distinction between an observer and the observed becomes meaningless. So much so that we would be mistaken to say that I stand on your shoulders. Or that my actions are influenced by a teacher from the past. In letting go of the artificial separation between one thing and another, one moment and another, the deterministic idea of cause and effect breaks down. Even our idea of time itself, which is essential for a world you describe, is not set in stone.

        Yet, we know awareness. That is the one thing that is undeniable. Maybe the only thing truly known. Because of this awareness that is directly experienced, which I refered to as consciousness, the question of the world being deterministicly dependant upon the past, or a chaotic world of illusion, doesn’t really matter, as the middle road of just being, without knowing what that means, frees us from all questions.

        Another way of saying this might be, the observer is all there is to reality, that the observer is the observed. There is no you and I in oneness.

Leave a Reply to spiral droplet Cancel reply