SEPTEMBER 19
There is really no such creature as a single individual; he has
no more life of his own than a cast-off cell marooned from
the surface of your skin.
—LEWIS THOMASSomehow we know this. And we know it with special
sharpness and poignancy when one who is close to us, as
close as though he or she were a part of our own body, is
taken away. Of course it hurts!
But there is some comfort, too, in this concept of being
parts of one another’s being. We are not alone in the world.
We are bound to the rest of creation as cells in a body are
bound together.
And not only bound to the living, but bound to the dead.
We feel this to be true as well, though we don’t understand
how.
So what else is new? Perhaps we can just rest in our ignor-
ance, savoring what we share with all life, buoyed by the
knowledge of how totally unalone we are.
I am organically connected to all of life. I am not alone!