I Am Because We Are

I am because we are.

This is one definition of Ubuntu, a word found in several Southern African languages that speaks to the interconnection of all people. In the west many people became familiar with this concept through the writing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

In 2008 he wrote, “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

I am because we are.

How beautiful is that? Each of us exists because we all exist. There are several ways to read that. I as a human being exist only because all my direct ancestors met each other and had families.

Or our ability to live relies on our interconnectedness. Any activity – eating a meal – requires many people’s contributions. When it comes to eating you have to have the farmers, truck drivers, grocery clerks, cooks, etc. We can’t do anything alone. Sure there is the occasional hermit or castaway, but even they were raised by parents and taught by teachers.

And then there is the more emotional and spiritual meaning that the Archbishop alluded to,  that there are people around us who love us so much and that we love so much that they keep us going. I certainly feel that way about my children and my close loved ones.

I had a religion teacher in High School, Tom Dolan, who explained to us that in Buddhism there is the concept that all things and all actions exist in relation to one another. There is no vacuum of isolated items. Walking is not your feet moving. There is no walking without the feet AND the ground.

“My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. We belong in a bundle of life. We say, a person is a person through other persons,” “Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness.

So most assuredly, Ubuntu, I am because we are.

I am because my Grandfather Rocco decided to leave Sicily and make a new life in America.

I am because my mother did the Heimlich maneuver on me as a child and saved my life.

I am (and others at my office are) because Cheryl makes sure we always have coffee.

I am because my son Lucas regularly calls me just to tell me he misses me.

I am because so many others are and have been.

So now share with me that you are because others are. And tell me, who are those others?

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