No Man Is An Island

Like most people I’ve been out walking for a daily dose of fresh air. Often meeting other locals and exchanging pleasantries which is nice; but I was recently struck when someone broke down about a friend who had passed away due to Covid. Both my walking buddy and I shed a tear too.

John Donne’s famous poem came to mind and now I can’t get it out of my head.

I suggest to ignore the word ‘Europe’ as this takes thoughts off in the wrong direction with all the Brexit business of the moment. It’s the line – ‘I am involved with mankind’ – that really hits the nail on the head for me. We are all truly connected despite the lockdown and isolation we are experiencing at this time.

Throughout the history of man, when a soul passes from this world to the next, we have had rituals to help those left behind reduce their suffering. What do we have now though? And how will that affect us?

‘No Man is an Island’

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

John Donne