Did you know that you are never alone? Did you know that you are host to trillions of viruses and bacteria and motes and imps and no seeums and whatnots? An entire ecosystem of other creatures living inside and on you. In fact the population of creatures hitching a ride with just a single one of us is greater than all of humanity. If we could separate the you - from the them (we can’t but if we could) separate all of your cells, your sinue, your bones, your blood, your thoughts and memories, all of the workings of your mind, your skin, your heart, your lungs, if we could separate your little bits from their little bits, their number would be at least the same as your number. Now they are tiny and your cells are big and watery so you have them beat in mass but when you simply go by population more than half of what you think of as you is not you at all. More than half of you is them. It’s called your microbiome. Your microbiome begins as a gift from your mother, until one day your microbiome comes in contact with someone else’s microbiome through a touch, a handshake, a hug or a kiss. Then you will take on bunches of their citizens and they bunches of yours and both of your microbiomes will be forever changed. Imagine it, an inseparable part of who and what you are, changed forever by a touch.
Our microbiomes point out to us how irrevocably connected we all are. While most of our microbes are beneficial, sometimes a microbe can lead to disease and that disease can travel from touch, to touch, to touch around the globe in a matter of days. To help slow the spread of the disease we are being asked to distance ourselves, to give up some connection for the good of us all. It’s very telling to see how strongly we resist it. In fact, social distancing is a nod to the futility of trying to achieve isolation. For we humans isolation is an impossibility. We need each other. We rely on each other. Our health, our wealth, our clothing, our food, our homes and cars and careers, our art, our music and literature, our language and customs and identity are all a global symphony of human connection. We like to think of ourselves as strong, independent, self-reliant, individuals but that idea is a fallacy. In truth we are only as strong as the weakest of us, only as rich as the poorest. Perhaps we have forgotten that truth. We began to see ourselves as independent, instead of dependent and we forgot how important it is to care for one another. We grew comfortable in our reverie and we failed to remember that the biggest part of ourselves is not ourselves at all, the biggest part of who we are - is who we are not. The biggest part of us is we.
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