SELF-SUFFICING
[A friend recommended Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom. Gracian was a Spanish scholar of the 17th century who set forth a series of maxims for ethical action. From time to time I'll write about one of his maxims.]
Gracian tells us that the ability to depend on ourselves alone is the highest happiness, that being our own best friend, having the ability to live alone, is the best way to live. I think this is an important thought but when we think about it, we must note that Gracian doesn't recommend living alone. He recommends that we maintain the ability to live alone, not that we actually live alone. He urges the ability to depend on ourselves alone, not that we actually do so.
I believe that friends and family are the most important aspects of life, that a rich social life makes everything we do easier and more productive. But an inordinate dependence on others, the complete inability to function without the support of others, makes us weak and unable to function. So what we need is the independence, the self-confidence to live alone without doing it. We need individuality within a group, we need the strength to function alone while participating and giving to a group.
I was struck by an article about baboons in the magazine Natural History. The article was written for a different purpose but included a discussion of the individuality of baboons within the baboon community. The baboon community is strong and essential for the preservation of all but allows for individual behavior and individual responsibility. I think this is what Gracian was talking about: We must be strong individuals but we also need to function within groups. It is our individual strength which enables us to function within groups. This strength is essential to the group, it multiplies the strength of the group. Without individual strength, the group itself would be weak.
Seek to participate in groups, seek to benefit from and give to the group but recognize that your ability to function without the group is what gives strength to and enriches the group. Be able to live alone but do not seek to live alone.
10-29-01
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