The Necessity of Each Other
Sometimes, by Herman Hesse Sometimes, when a bird cries out, Or the wind sweeps through a tree, Or a dog howls on a far-off farm, I hold still and listen a long time. My soul turns and goes back to the place Where, a thousand forgotten years ago, The bird and the blowing wind Were like me, and were my brothers. My soul turns into a tree, and an animal, and a cloud bank. Then changed and odd it comes home again.
Soon after I began practicing yoga 25 years ago I learned that the word yoga means “to yoke.” This “yoking” practice was one of union. I have understood this practice of union through the years as one of me to myself and me to a power greater than myself. This union is one that is meant for all beings everywhere—that we all might know we are inextricably yoked to each other and to the same great life force and needs.
One of these needs is for a connection to one another.
Last Sunday, I experienced this sort of connection at a Green Day concert with my daughter, niece, and sister in law. There we were in a crowd of some 35,000 people and suddenly everyone was on the same page, united by the energy of the music, the infectious liveliness of the band’s lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong, and the bouncing dance moves and arm pumping of a crowd in unison. Surrounded by the night lights of Pittsburgh, with a view of the rivers and bridges in the background, the sensation vibrating in that giant stadium could only be described as pure joy.
Why is it that a rock concert has the ability to bring people together in a way that so many of our public forums do not? I don’t have a real answer for this but would love to understand better.