Connectivity...today.

When I was a relatively new mom I had the benefit of living very close to my own mother. She was a great help with my small band of banshees. She read stories, sang lullabies and babysat (even overnight!) whenever I needed. She visited or called every day and never left a sink full of dishes undone… EVER!

Well, now she’s 80. My children are nearly all grown, most gone, and mom has moved into our guest suite on the first floor. She likes my dogs well enough, but while she’ll never say so, it is a struggle to fill their dishes. And sadly, her hands are so weakened from arthritis and gout that dishes done by her now need to be (discretely!) re-done.


I love the perspective that time has afforded my family and me. My challenge is to both recognize and articulate it. So here goes… I’ll begin by quoting my 19-year-old philosopher who noted wryly, “We’re all connected as f**k!” While somewhat inelegantly stated, I have come to believe this truth as it applies to both mundane and profound relationships. It speaks to the core of my Montessori being. Classic Montessori directresses (teachers) are not didactic; they are merely connectors to a variety of hands-on materials that teach the intended, universal lessons.

When I expand this concept, our universe is one large classroom and we are all living connectors. We connect past to present. We connect actions to meaning. Indeed, we connect the divine to the everyday. Viewed in this connected context, it necessarily changes how we treat things around us, and each other. As conveyers, we carry messages. As bridges, we provide pathways. As witnesses to the process, we ultimately provide perspective as well. Whew! At first glance, this may seem overwhelming, an impossible position, but upon reflection, I find it completely freeing: it is not all about me… indeed, it’s possibly NEVER about me… yet what I do as an individual has the power to affect all of humanity.

Sadly, like my mother’s hands, our culture/society has become gnarled and weakened by time and repeated tasks. We continue to do things that we have become incapable of doing well. Our systems (education, criminal justice, economic, you name it!) need revisiting, re-imagining and an injection of new energy… a compassionate energy that respects the individual, yet recognizes his or her larger connection… to everything! How might this perspective reframe what we do, seek, consume? How might it build a deeper, more meaningful relationship among and between all living beings? By relinquishing our white-knuckled, atomized control, how might we actually preserve and sustain all of humanity?

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