We are all in this together.

I find the whole idea of blogging a little familiar. Remember Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein. In those novels much of the exchange of ideas is done through letters. Captain Walton writes his sister after he rescues the waterlogged Victor Frankenstein in the Artic. Elizabeth Bennett writes her sisters and everyone else as she waits at home. Many great romances are based on epistolary relationships—writing letters back and forth. That is how I see blogging—just Victorian letters set in cyberspace. I jot a quick note to anyone who is listening and the reader responds. Is anyone listening?

As for our reading—especially that of Lewis Thomas as he explores the interconnectedness of cells and human beings. I have always felt connected to my fellow humans. In fact, that may be the only thing that I do well. Sometimes when I am meandering through the shopping mall (yuk) or the supermarket I get this overwhelming sense of warmth. I am on the verge of telepathy. I can “feel” my fellow shoppers and when I look into their faces I can almost make out what they are thinking. Certain people give out a “cheerless” vibe, and others make me feel uneasy. Most of the time I just feel kinship—that everyone is in the same boat. Lewis Thomas makes this same sort of point in his book Lives of a Cell.

We human beings are not separate entities. We are all functioning blocks of a bigger consciousness or community. Thomas makes this point by showing how our own bodies are made up of billions of tiny, microscopic bits and pieces that all do a routine job daily to keep us eating, drinking, breathing. To think of ourselves that way will help us to accept that we are all part of a bigger community of interconnected human beings.