Inextricable
By Andrea Lingle
A single queen bee will not survive. For all of her royalty, she cannot be a hive unto herself. There is such a thing as a honeypot ant: an ant whose existence is to eat and hold nectar in a special stomach. As the colony requires, the honeypot ant dispenses the nectar to nourish the community. If an apple tree is pollinated with pollen from a different tree, it will bear more fruit. Grown in isolation, apple trees will not fruit according to their potential.
How is it, in light of all this richness of wisdom, that we have built altars before individualism. We have swallowed whole the ideology that it is our right to be individually happy, no matter the cost. We have refused to believe that we are part of the whole of creation, spending untold hours and gallons of ink trying to define what is means to be human. We have striven to see ourselves as set apart from the bees, ants, and apple trees, and, in so doing, have ravaged our home—as if drawing a distinction between humans and everything else makes us able to breathe without algae and eat without chlorophyll.
We have been convinced that this individual life is easier. Things are just more fun if they are customized to suit not only your needs but your preferences as well. Don’t worry, your playlist is individualized just for you! I appreciate that my algorithms make my back-and-forthing free from the doldrums of the top forty, and I am not sure that there is anything wrong with getting your pizza topped with what you want. Because some times need ham and pineapple, and some times only sausage and mushrooms with do. But we must refuse to be duped into thinking that we not enmeshed in all of creation. The more we learn about our companions in the universe, the more we realize that our lines of distinction are illusory. Language, consciousness, compassion, playfulness, joy, hope, love: if you look, you will find them everywhere. We are inextricably woven within a creation brimming Spirit, so, perhaps, our salvation can only be wrought with the whole.