dependence: a fantastic opportunity

Lewis talks about our interdependence today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He tells us that, for better or for worse, we need each other. And that brings to mind the parable of the long spoons. There is a story of heaven and hell, both populated with people at a dinner table with extremely long spoons. In hell, every person is trying to feed himself, and can't because the spoons are too long and they keep dropping the food. In heaven, the exact same table with the exact same spoons, but everyone is happy because they are feeding each other.

It ALMOST seems like a silly story. Unless you're a human being living in the world we inhabit. Then you realize that it's really an apt allegory after all. It's what we experience every day. If we reach out in love to our neighbor, and help take care of their needs, and in return we allow our neighbors to help with our own needs, then not only do all of the needs get met, we learn to love one another in the process.

If, as is too often the case, we are selfish and look only after our own interests, we find ourselves frustrated and unhappy and alone.

Let's learn to reach out in interdependence and love one another.

Thank You, God, for making things in such a way that we can't suffer alone in self-sufficiency.