No Man is an Island

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...

This quotation from John Donne (1572-1631) appears in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII:
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Using imagery that people can easily identify with, John Donne affirms that no man can exist on his own, without the benefits accrued from being part of society in general. Once isolated from others, human beings no longer thrive. There are no human islands, for we all have need of others at varying points in our lives, no matter how reclusive an individual may appear to the outside world. John Donne was a Christian, although this concept of the gregarious nature of human beings is ahared by other religions, and is found principally in Buddhism.

So, what has made me think about this quotation today? I was thinking mostly about how easily the word 'I' can dominate in thought, conversation and communication. How easy it is for 'I' to take over, ultimately, as far as the ear of the listener or the eye of the reader is concerned, reducing every achievement to symbolic ashes by claiming to have created or improved almost everything.

One important lesson that I learned a long time ago was that love is the glue that holds society together in one form or another. Whether love for one's country, one's family or for another, the thing that makes the difference is love. LOVE. Note that there's no 'I' in it! Those who put an 'I' into love are the ones who become boring through their egotistical attitudes. They promote self beyond all, peppering their conversations with their sentences being prefixed by the words 'I think . . .', 'I did . . .', 'I know . . .', and so on. They become so self-centred that there is no room for anyone else. In a sense they have made themselves into islands of self, yet in such isolation they will ultimately die.

The real truth is that we have been created by God; that our lives are fuller and richer because of the blessings we receive from God; that the greatest love ever shown has been demonstrated by God through Jesus Christ. Once we see and understand God's love for what it is then we begin to absorb it and to reflect it through our own lives. I guess that John 3:16 says it all!