Everyone Belongs

Humans are not the independent, solitary islands of individuality that we have imagined ourselves to be. We are a unity of beings. I know this because of how good it feels to belong- and how every person I have encountered yearns for connection.

I witness the tension, violence, and discord in our nation in 2025, and the suffering and grief they bring. It no longer matters how we got to this point it, only matters that we have. This is the moment when we learn to be one people, or break into a million little pieces.

We must re-learn how to be in community, in person, and in real time. We must respect our communal origins and recognize that we evolved neurologically to be in relationship. Our Creator made us to be family. One big, crazy family.

Paradoxically, we experience life individually but we are snugly fit into a larger organism. Each person is like one of the innumerable cells of a human body- each beautifully designed to support the whole in our own special way. Each differentiated cell, or person, is critically important to the well-being of our entirety.

We are only whole when we are communal.

Once we understand this, we can finally grasp another simple truth - no one is disposable. Everyone’s gifts and efforts are needed. Would you evict cardiac cells from your heart? Would you neglect to feed a foot with blood because you think you can get more profit from the blood by selling it to you left arm? No. Each human life must be supported and respected. When entire communities are cut off from resources because of greed, and when corrupt systems decide they are unimportant or of lesser inherent value, the whole community loses: like lungs deprived of oxygen because someone choked off the trachea.

Every person has a purpose. In their purpose, every person can find meaning.  Just as each cell is uniquely designed to do a specific task in the body, each person has a unique role to play in the human community. Just as there are no throw parts in a person, there are no throw away people.

I cringe at the lie of the self-made person. I’ve lost my patience for hero worship and billionaire envy. I feel a twinge of nausea when someone brags about a family member enjoying corporate success and lots of money. Surely, many others feel this, too. The belief that one person’s value is greater than someone else’s is antithetical to everything personal experience and basic human decency have taught me.

We are all inherently and immeasurably valuable. We deserve care and love. Everyone belongs.