Potential energy

Life is change; static is death. I've stated this before, and it remains true. But I failed to fully explore the implications of that statement. I knew how it applied to my error -- trying to preserve a static identity, through the insulation of myself from any influence of others, not realizing that to do so was nothing better than the meticulous preservation of a corpse, an artifact useful for others but pernicious to the individual in question -- but I missed the key part, what I thought was a minor method of my greater madness that was in fact the most important part of the mistake: the insulation of myself from the influence of others.

It's not enough to change. Life cannot exist in a vacuum. Life can only be defined through relationships with other lives -- as our cells cannot exist by themselves, only in a symbiotic relationship with the rest our body, and as the organs within those cells cannot exist by themselves, and so on through the fractal levels, so human beings (and other greater life forms) cannot exist except in cooperation with others.

That's an example of survival, of course, and I mean more than that. I mean that even if possible -- which in today's world it is both more and less -- a solitary life is meaningless. This is a startling statement to someone such as myself, who spent so much time dedicated to that very ideal, but it's the truth. I find it hard to say it, for it runs contrary to every instinct I have, but solitary activities are not sufficiently enriching in and of themselves: until they are used to further develop a relationship with others, they exist only in the vast space of unrealized potential, awaiting their call to action along with so many other trivial tidbits stored up in the back of our brains.

All my writing -- this blog, even -- amounts to nothing if I never share it with anyone else. (This blog I mostly use for organizing my thoughts, which helps in the rare situation in which these issues come up, but does help nonetheless.) A life alone is a static life, which is death. I'm not saying that we should all be together all the time -- good God! -- or anything in that direction, but rather that who we are, more than our genetics or our upbringing, depends on who we know, who we associate with, who are friends are and who they are. It's a web that stretches out from one person until it encompasses the entire world.

Individuality is our greatest asset, make no mistake, but it is only useful in the context of this realization, that individuals are simply agents of a larger system, separate but inseparable -- a paradox, yes, but, as so often happens, a true one.