Each month, a member of the board shares a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for March is Interdependence. This month’s post is offered by Shelley Buss. 

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I’ve got a confession to make- I didn’t know what topic I would get when I said I’d write the article for April, and when it turned out to be “Interdependence” what went through my head was that my dad would say “well that’s drier than a popcorn fart.” However, I’m relieved to report that when I let my mind loose on the topic, I enjoyed the path it led me down. The first thing I needed to do was confirm the meaning of interdependence since I don’t think I’ve ever used it in a sentence in my life. Sounded like a good plan, but the internet kind of popped my bubble with the first result coming from a website called “The Practical Psych” saying “Interdependence is the state of being interconnected with others. More specifically, it is a situation in which two or more people depend on or affect each other such that the actions of one will influence the other. This means that our well-being is influenced by the actions of those around us.” It went on to say “There are three main characteristics of interdependence: social connectedness, mutuality, and reciprocity…” and at this point I thought I smelled popcorn and shut my brain off. Well I didn’t actually shut my brain off, just wasn’t in the mood, but to save you the trouble, social connectedness is just that: our social networks, while mutuality is collaboration on a shared interest, and reciprocity is give and take, as in I “take” the gift of infrastructure and in turn “give” the gift of taxes. So that’s the dry version, but I’d like you to consider a micro version of this need we all share.

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