Ubuntu

Dressed in several layers, I'm warm despite low temps and a stiff westerly wind that seems to blow always across this high place. The sky, a vast dome of deep blue just beginning to lighten in the east, holds not a single cloud to catch the colors of the soon~to~be rising sun. Fields stretch in every direction, ending at horizon or the sudden upsweep of mountainside. 

It is the spaciousness of this place that calls me and in response, I feel myself expanding out of the narrow confines that too often claim me. The felt experience of being part of something unfathomably large fills me, and I know the joys and challenges of my individual life to be embedded within that intricate and elegant whole.

Desmond Tutu, in explaining the African concept of Ubuntu, lit on these words: "We belong in a bundle of life." Ubuntu embodies the spiritual truth that there is a unifying something that lies beneath the surface appearances that so often catch us up. 

It's easy to see ourselves as discrete individuals, and while that is true on one level, it is also true that our similarities are much greater and more enduring than our differences. Our brains are primed to note the unusual. It's how our ancestors stayed alive to eventually beget us. But they stayed alive by also recognizing their shared experience and by cooperating as individuals within a community. 

Ubuntu has been translated as "I am, because you are," and comes out of a larger phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu which refers to the ticklish truth that we become ourselves through other people. To become our best versions, we need not only those with whom we feel kinship, but those who challenge us by holding opposing views. 

Each person comes to us as gift. Often that gift is delightful. Yet even when it is not, the interaction offers an opportunity to open ourselves to a new perspective or, at the very least, to choose who we will become through our response. 

This pandemic year has certainly taught about interconnectedness, in both what it took away and what it brought to us. By removing our ability to easily interact, we discovered our longing for one another. And this wildfire virus also brought us irrefutable proof that we are intricately woven together in ways seen and unseen. And it teaches still. As the vaccine becomes more readily available, new choices arise.  

We're a diverse lot, and that is as it should be. Any vibrant, living system benefits from diversity. Yet the individual choices we make must be balanced always with the greater good. Our culture tends to lead with self-interest. And rugged individualism~~our penchant for doing as we want with limited regard for the welfare of others~~is what has won us the distinction of leading the world in COVID deaths.

Our spiritual sensibilities need to be part of the decisions we make about vaccination. It takes a village to contain a deadly virus, and we are all members of that village. And so, we get vaccinated. If we are uneasy about vaccinations in general or leery about their side effects, we get vaccinated. If we believe the concerns about the virus are overrated, we get vaccinated. And if we are willing to take the risk of getting sick ourselves, still we get vaccinated. To refuse for any of these reasons is to offer our bodies as incubators for a virus primed to create new, deadlier variants. And it is to refuse a chance to step fully into our role as engaged members of our human community.

Our right to do as we want usually comes with the addendum "as long as we harm none." This virus encourages us to place that addendum centerstage. A decision to not get vaccinated will offer illness and death to others. No question. While a choice to not get vaccinated may not directly lead to deaths (though it certainly may), the containment of this virus~~preventing more deaths, illness, and nastier variants, with health and economic complications down the road~~necessitates that as many of us as possible get vaccinated and soon.

We cannot all be infectious disease experts. We must trust the recommendations of those with the training to offer them. And we must take our place as responsible individuals within a larger community in crisis.

As I stand now in this high place with the sun just beginning to clear the eastern horizon, I think about our many interconnections. None of us stand alone, even though it can appear that we do. Every action we take creates ripples. May we be conscious now of the ripples we set in motion and may they radiate blessings into a world waiting to receive.

Blessings galore!

Leia