No one is alone. One person cannot do it alone. Not even dying is done alone although we may try to trick our minds into thinking such. We often think that we are doing things all alone. The reality is that many others are always involved.

Suffering a heart attack may seem like a lonely experience – done alone. It is not. There are always many others us around performing numerous functions meeting a variety of needs. Alone? Hardly.

Given this reality we ought to more seriously take the notion of interdependence. How is it that we all benefit from one another? Remember the story of “Footprints in the Sand” where the trail starts with two sets of prints as colleagues walk together. Then as the trail continues there is only one set of prints when one is carrying the other. One set of prints, however the colleagues are still together. And as the words in the 1969 popular song by the Hollies: “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” illustrates interdependence.

Interdependence is a relationship where there is mutual dependence. This concept differs from a simple dependence relation, which implies that one member of the relationship can not function or survive apart from the other(s). In an interdependent relationship, participants may be emotionally, economically, ecologically and/or morally reliant on and responsible to each other. In the “Footprints in the Sand” or the Hollies song it may initially appear as a dependent relationship. However when one looks deeper (from an interdependent perspective) it is more obvious that there is a particular harmony of opposites at work. When this relational cooperation of contradictions is not perceived, it appears that opposition is the central factor. This can be severely limiting. When the relationship between the factors is perceived, however, a broader understanding occurs.

With an understanding of the harmony of opposites, “he aint heavy, he’s my brother” loses its regard as a noble sentiment suggesting that we need to care for others which makes us better persons, but rather becomes an injunction which actually describes the deeper dimensions already existing in the relationship.

An interdependent relationship can arise between two or more autonomous participants collaborate. Interdependence ought to be a sought as a common ground between and among participants.