a great reminder

"We cannot live only for ourselves.
A thousand fibers connect us
with our fellow men."
~Herman Melville

sometimes, in our desire to express individuality, we forget how interconnected we are. we forget that all our actions have their corresponding reactions in other people's lives. we forget that for all our outward images of independence, all our lives are linked. our actions will cause a change somehow, in some unknown fashion, in the life of a person we don't know from adam.

this awareness is what is sorely needed in the world today. people need to know that whatever it is that they do, they affect someone else's reality. we all need to know that, whether we like it our not, our reality is not just our own. it's a shared reality. you can't contain ripples in a pool of water. it's bound to spread outward towards the entire lake.