“My biggest responsibility is to recognize that I am part of the continuum, that I didn't just appear and start writing stuff down. I'm writing stuff down because Andre Lorde wrote stuff down, because James Baldwin wrote stuff down... and all the people who came before me -- set the stage for my work. I have to keep all of that in my heart as I move through the world, not only for the deep respect I have for them, but also for my own strength.” - Glory Edim
I like this quote because I feel like nowadays we have been plagued by individualism. Not necessarily individualism in the traditional sense of being independent, self-reliant, or having the freedom to think for yourself, but a distorted version of it. We have become individuals who constantly look to everyone else to tell us how to live. We want to be unique, but we often become unique in the exact same ways. We want to stand out, but we spend hours scrolling through the same apps, listening to the same music, wearing the same clothes, eating the same foods, and following the same trends.
There is something almost contradictory about the way we understand individuality today. We are constantly encouraged to “be yourself,” but we are also surrounded by an endless stream of examples of what “being yourself” is supposed to look like. We have access to more information than any generation before us, yet sometimes that information makes it harder to hear our own thoughts. Instead of asking ourselves what we genuinely want or feel, we often ask, “What are other people doing?” or “How are other people feeling”
In this sense, the modern version of individualism can actually make us more alike rather than more different.
I do not mean that we need to share everything with the people around us or abandon our individuality. There is nothing wrong with having personal boundaries, private lives, individual goals, or interests that are different from those of other people. Independence is important. Being able to think for yourself is important. However, I think we have forgotten that being an individual does not mean existing separately from everyone else. We are still part of a community, a culture, a history, and a larger human story. The freedom to be an individual was not created by individuals working completely alone.
Perhaps the clearest example of this lost connection is our relationship with nature. We often talk about nature as something that exists outside of us: something we visit, photograph, vacation in, or use when we need to escape from our normal lives. We say we are “going into nature,” as if we are somehow separate from it. But we are not. We are nature. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the materials we use to build our lives all come from the natural world. Before we are consumers, students, workers, citizens, or individuals, we are living beings participating in an ecosystem.
This makes our relationship with nature another example of the way we have misunderstood individuality. We have become so focused on the individual that we sometimes forget the systems that make the individual possible. We want to think of ourselves as self-sufficient, but even our bodies depend on relationships we rarely think about. Plants depend on soil, water, sunlight, insects, fungi, and other organisms. Humans depend on plants, animals, microorganisms, water, and the atmosphere. Nothing exists completely alone yet work simultaneously in an individual way.
Nature challenges the idea that independence is the highest form of freedom. A forest does not thrive because every tree competes to become the only tree. It thrives because different organisms occupy different roles. Nature is a living example of the puzzle I described earlier. Every piece is different, but the differences are what allow the whole thing to function.
Our increasing distance from nature may also make it easier to forget this lesson. Much of modern life happens through screens that separate us from the processes that sustain us. We can order food without thinking about where it came from. We can turn on a faucet without thinking about the water cycle. We can throw something away without seeing where “away” actually is. We can spend an entire day surrounded by other people without touching soil, noticing the weather, hearing birds, or watching anything grow.
Research on nature connectedness has found that people who feel more connected to nature tend to report greater positive emotion, vitality, and life satisfaction. (PubMed Central (PMC)). We scroll through other people's lives, compare ourselves to people we have never met, and consume an endless stream of information telling us what to want, what to buy, what to look like, and who to become. Nature does not ask us to perform. A tree does not care whether we think it is beautiful. The grass does not care whether we are productive. The ocean does not care how many people liked our photograph of it. Nature simply exists. And perhaps spending time around something that does not demand that we perform can help us remember who we are when we are not performing for everyone else.
If modern individualism has taught us to constantly look outward for validation while simultaneously convincing us that we are completely independent, nature reminds us that we can be individual without being separate. Nature makes this visible. An ecosystem does not need everything to be the same. It needs everything to be connected. Maybe human society is the same way.
We do not need to all eat the same foods, dress the same way, listen to the same music, have the same careers, or believe the same things. We do not need to erase individuality in the name of community. What we need is to remember that our individuality exists within something larger than ourselves.
The goal, then, should not be to become less individual but more so to become more conscious of what our individuality is connected to.
Glory Edim's idea of being part of a continuum extends beyond the people who came before us. We are also part of a continuum of life itself. The people before us shaped the world we inherited, and the natural world has sustained every generation that has ever existed. We inherited both human history and an environment. If every piece is the same, the puzzle cannot be completed.
-Gracia M. Johnson