ME, INCORPORATED

ME, INCORPORATED

October 5, 2015

No, the title is not a company name nor an acronym.  It is just the essence of a discussion on the wall post I brought and pasted to the office wall today.  A saying by Robert Bellah (a Harvard Sociologist who also taught at UC Berkeley) that goes, “Each of us live in and through the immense movement of the hands of many people”.

It is indeed true that no man is an island, and without the company and help of others, we would each die in our own lonely little corners.  From the moment we were born until the day we die, the Sociologist said it best that we are at the receiving end of the handiwork not just of a Master Designer but of all the people who literally touched us all through our lives—from the nurses and doctors who took us out of the womb of our mothers; to our mothers who breastfed us and rocked us to sleep; to our nannies who bathed us, and loved ones who prepared our food, who held on to us, carried us proudly and lovingly; to our parents who smacked our behinds when we disobey; to our teachers who flicked a stick on our erring and restless fingers going astray; to all our friends whom we rough-and-tumbled with in child- and adulthood; to the dressmakers, smiths and artisans who made the clothes, bags and shoes we wear; to all the farmers, agriculturists, food technology and production teams who produced the food (whether raw or processed) we eat; to all the assembly-line production workers who spent countless hours making the pens, papers, electronic gadgets, vehicles and equipment, and all sorts of stuff we use to perform our tasks and make our lives easier everyday; and even when we are laid down to the grave, to the gravediggers who shovel the soil covering our coffins in the ground.

Every one person, no matter how annoying, stupid, irritating or hateful they may be, even if they have committed the most heinous crime, is literally a product of everything that touches them, whether physically internal or external, or intangibly, everyone who contributed in putting ideas into their heads and building up emotions and memories in their lives.

But this realization comes with a double side.  And that is the responsibility to be thankful for all the hands who have made us, whether they have given us pain or joy, honor or shame.  For it is indeed true that we are their product, albeit a work-in-process at that.  It is a tall order that for my part, I can only whisper in prayer as the Psalmist and Prophets have said, “THAT MAY GOD BLESS THE HANDS (AND THE LIVES) THAT HAVE BROUGHT ME HERE AND MADE ME WHAT I AM TODAY.”