Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. For in a sense, all things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other—for one thing follows after another according to their tension of movement, their sympathetic stirrings, and the unity of all substance.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.38
Anne Lamott once observed that all writers “are little rivers running into one lake,” all contributing to the same big project. The same is true in many industries—though sadly, even inside the same company, people selfishly forget they’re working together. As human beings we all breathe the atoms that made up our ancestors and flow into the same earth when we die.
Over and over again, the Stoics reminded themselves of the interconnectedness of life. Perhaps that was because life in Greece and Rome was particularly harsh. Animals and people were slaughtered senselessly to amuse the masses in the Colosseum (events lamented in the Stoic writings). Countries were conquered and its citizens sold into slavery to expand the empire (the futility of which the Stoics also lamented). This kind of cruelty is possible only when we forget how we’re related to our fellow human beings and the environment.
Today, take a moment to remember that we are woven together and that each of us plays a role (good, bad, or ugly) in this world.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman