Question #9: How do you view your connection to mankind?

The Whole of It

Birth. Death.  And the life lived between.   I have reason to consider my mortality. 

This month I will have had 50 years of experience on this planet, and there is a lot to ponder.  I have had times of aloneness, I've enjoyed group interactions, have felt loneliness, and embraced connection. And I feel enriched by it all. 

The phrase “No man is an island...” floated through my musing mind and I related to the truth of it.  I decided to read the full poem and discovered something I had never seen before: the date John Donne died.  

Barring the year, his death date is my birth date.  

Through this momentary mortality check, I suddenly connected to him, and the words of his poem in an even deeper way. 

 I am not an island.  I am a part, connected to the whole.  

Personally affected by it all.  Globally influencing more than I see.

So in honor of the whole of it, I declare a celebration of my presence here.  I honor mankind for the ebb and flow of new life and new death.  Knowing well that I am involved in mankind and it in me.  Any bell that tolls, or shout of joy, is one that tolls or shouts for me.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were:

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 

It tolls for thee.  

John Donne

January 22, 1572  - March 31,1631 

An English poet and cleric in the Church of England, considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets.

How do you view your connection to mankind?  

Let's skip a few rocks, and create some ripples...

~Asia