We're all in this together!

In John Donne's Selections, a theme that continually reappears is that of togetherness and the interconnectedness of humanity. For example, in his poem Meditation, talking about baptism (spiritual birth) and death, he says "when she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author." This passage gives a lot of insight into the perspective of John Donne, showing his view of how we as humans are all members of one singular group, and what happens to one person concerns all. Further along in this poem he clarifies this idea further when he says that "no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."



In reading from John Donne, I begin to notice a shift in culture as history moves forward. As we look back to the Renaissance period, we see that it was a time of individualism and personal growth, that lead to a  culture of creating a life that you desire. Moving forward in time to the reformation period, we now see a shift to an interconnectedness, while still maintaining the ideal of improvement and growth. I feel that this idea of interconnectedness can be seen as a monumental shift in the course of humanity. In this framework we see that individuals in society are recognizing the value of working together. Rather than seeing each other as enemies, people are beginning to recognize the value in relying on one another and being one single continent in unity, rather than individual islands.

Oftentimes I have thought about the drastic change that has occurred in the world over the past couple of hundreds of years. Humans have been on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years. But the majority of the development of humanity by mean of cities, economy, and technology has occurred within the last 500 years. It appears to me that this growth in humanity began at the same time that John Donne and others during his time period began to see others as allies rather than competition. Today we have achieved so much because we can work together. Thanks to this shift in the culture during the time of John Donne, we still rely on one another today, and will continue to in the future as society continues to develop.