Jack is right.
Updated: Nov 18, 2020
Better when we are Together. Having heard this song repeatedly in countries all around the world (South Africa, India, Japan to name a few), the universal appeal to his message is clear. We are simply better together.
In my search for understanding the perils of this world, one word keeps coming to mind: separation.
Humans are social beings. We like being in communities and relating to each other. Our society, though, has veered us off of that course of being connected to each other and segregated us in so many small units when separation actually creates doubt, mistrust, fear and often unsubstantiated hatred.
For one, schools separate children into age groups and the only adults they learn from are teachers. From my own experience I know I learned a lot from my siblings and their friends, older and younger. To separate by age in schools means that we are eliminating cross-generational learning and children never learn how to speak to adults.
Another example is separating us from the sources of food. We buy most of our groceries in an almost sterile, electrically lit super markets that has nothing to do with where the food came from. By not knowing the sources, it makes the consumers ignorant on how we should choose our products. Thus, relinquishing control of what we eat to companies that spend more money on marketing than on the quality of the food.
Our biggest crime as a society has been our deliberate separation from Mother Earth, the source of our own being. We learned to see monsters in the forests and learned to dislike the wild, turning all of nature into nothing more than resources for us to subdue.
Connectivity creates understanding, compassion, and stronger bonds; a much more sophisticated network and thus a higher tolerance and resilience. A basket with a tighter weave can hold a much heavier load.
So, just like Jack said, we are much better when we are together. Be a little bit daring and see if you can connect with nature, people, philosophies that you are suspicious about. You might just learn something wonderful.
