Two-Minute Tune-Up 11.3.12 For Whom the Bell Tolls

Upon hearing the familiar sound of an emergency vehicle siren, my first response is always prayer for whoever is awaiting help…primarily because I can’t help thinking of that line from John Donne’s Meditations: “Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”

John Donne’s point, and later, Hemingway’s, was the interconnectedness of all of humanity; when one suffers, we all suffer. “No man is an island.”

Whether at work or at home, when this philosophical truth enters our daily consciousness, things change; territorialism, nationalism, defensiveness, and  jealousies begin to fall away. It is no longer about me and mine, but about us. When you win, so do I.

What freedom. But…what responsibility as well.

I am my brother’s keeper.