It's all about connection

We've all heard that it's more important who you know than what you know. The idea being that networking is one of the most important skills for life. I agree wholeheartedly. I take it a step further and say that I basically live for connections with others. It's just a rhetorical thought experiment, but in my mind's eye I would always trade every one of my possessions for a genuine connection with someone. You see, it has been my experience that powerful connections preclude any need to seek other things, as through connections everything that one needs can and will materialize. There's this hokey film out called "the secret," that proposes that by simply honestly willing the universe to grant you something, it will come to be. It actually works, though they don't explain the mechanism - connections (surprise, surprise). By seeking genuinely, by finding things that you want passionately, from your core, you will draw others to your cause, as people inherently enjoy a sense of purpose, and if you invite them, they will join. All of this happens quite unconsciously, of course. The interesting thing is that you cannot MAKE it so, though all things that should be will come to be, in some way, through connections. What I'm suggesting is that an effective fundamental mode of operating, one that will bring absolute fulfillment, is to seek connection in all people, indeed, all things. It is certainly my primary objective as a teacher to connect with my students, with parents, and colleagues too. I do it for selfish benevolent reasons; they are wonderful people, all of them, and our lives are mutually enriched through those relationships. I never have everything that I need. Generally, I don't even know what I need.

Interestingly, even in absolute solitude, I find myself feeling grateful for others who have allowed me to connect with them. Once I spent roughly a month living, three or four days at a time, out of a bivy sack in the mountains of central Idaho. Awaking before dawn, dusting off the frost and taking in the rich colors, smells, and vistas, I often found myself feeling deeply connected to those who weren't present. Perhaps it was because I was immersed in a very functional natural system, one in which all things are intimately connected to one another. Maybe it was the reminder of my own tendency to function like the rest of the natural world.

There are these fantastic moments when many things come together. When beliefs, or portions of them, converge to reveal a more fundamental truth. It has been clear for some time that we are (most of us) operating with deep dysfunction. I have known for many years that most of the sickening or despicable acts that I see around me are carried out by folks who see no better option for themselves. That is, I have known that people are fundamentally good, though vulnerable to fear and desperation. I have also seen how capable we are of surviving, changing our take on things in order to live with ourselves. There was a time when I was working for people who had collected empires of things in order to stack them into a wall that shut most everyone out. I didn't fully understand at the time why, but I referred to them as "disconnected." Even with their helicopters and mansions, I felt sad for many of them. They didn't seem very happy. I now believe that they share one thing with those at the other end of the spectrum, those who engage in petty crime in order to survive day to day; they are all lacking in connection. In fact, I'm starting to believe that a vast majority of those around me have a sense of isolation, at least at times, and that makes me sad. They say that loneliness is the only true sorrow. We are parts of a whole, and cut off from the others, we can not fully live. Oh, we can pacify ourselves with drugs and other...things--addictions, all, when they medicate--but genuine satisfaction will always elude us so long as we fail to invest sufficiently in connections. And as a teacher, I see students walking away from school for a lack of interest. When your only connections are with your peers, why sit in a sterile, punitive environment in lieu of developing the much more enriching connections that exist elsewhere? Perhaps worse, I see students conforming to the rigidity, building themselves up fact by fact into a fortress of knowledge. Then, they enter the world and wield the mighty machine in their head recklessly; without connection, we have no stop-gap for our own bad judgment. Without connections, we live for a selfish identity.

Consider this an invitation.

More evidence?:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html