On Independence Day, ask "For whom the bell tolls."

No man, John Donne eloquently meditated in 1624, is an island. Independence? Nah…try interbeing as named by Thich Nhat Hanh.

As Donne said so long ago, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If any clod, any chunk, any piece is washed away, the entire continent, that is the whole, is diminished, less-than, not entire.

On this significant day in our American history, let us not forget that every one of us – Every. One. Of. Us. – is part of the whole. Independence is meaningless in its purest iteration. We live interdependently. We cannot survive any other way.

No man, no woman, no child, no enemy, no friend, no American, no non-American is an island. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

Peace and love in the week ahead.