According to Stina Hanson, ‘we come into being as a response to a call from the other’.
I find this is an incredibly beautiful quote. It is in our engagement that agency is activated. By responding to being called, our Being comes to life. If no one calls our name, will we know who we are?
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
If no one calls us into Being, what happens to us – do we no longer exist? Coming into Being is such a powerful descriptor for the reason that we are here – to
Become, to grow. It also incorporates what Ubuntu stands for – that “I am because of you”. Desmond Tutu says “It is not ‘I think therefore I am’ it is ‘I belong, therefore I am’”. I think we not only wait to be called upon but also that we are to call on one another, to hold each other accountable.
COVID-19 taught us so many lessons. One of them is that we are all connected to each other, that we are all responsible for each other, and that this idea of individual rights at the expense of others is simply no longer tolerable. Trump’s idea of the world is being showcased as the biggest disaster ever. I cannot help but think of the biblical phrase “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer, in my opinion, is yes, you are. We all are.
Holding this sacred space means that I am mindful of you, I see you, I honour you. The person begging at the traffic light, the man offering to push your trolley at the shops or the parking attendant. And that (s)he not just your brother, it is (wo)mankind, it is our planet, every animal and plant on earth is your brother, and you its keeper. People living with dementia are also our brother and sister, for it is in our calling on them, literally and figuratively speaking, that they Become. Their Beingin-the-world is affected by our calling on them, the way we see them, think about them and treat them. The same holds true for every interaction that we have – it is our calling that determines their becoming.
The severe isolation hopefully taught us what it feels like when not being called.