The following meditation, “No Man is an Island,” is from Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart.
“No man is an island, no man lives alone.” These words from a poem by John Donne have been set to music and have become the theme of a variety of radio programs which are concerned with aspects of social responsibility. It is of crucial importance for each person to consider how he relates himself to the society of which, of necessity, he is a part. For many people and, at times, for most of us, it is a part of our dreaming to be let alone, to be free of all involvement in the responsibilities of life and for others. This is but natural; often the mood passes. Sometimes we say that our personal load is so heavy that it is all we can do to look after ourselves with all that that entails. Even as we express such ideas, we are reminded of a wide variety of events that we are never ourselves alone. We are not an island, we do not live alone.
There is no alternative to the insistence that we cannot escape from personal responsibility for the social order in which we live. We are a part of the society in which we function. There can be no health for us if we lose our sense of personal responsibility for the social order. This means that there must be participation in the social process, and that quite specifically. Such participation means the wise and critical use of the ballot; the registering of our intent to share responsibility in government. The moral inference is that there must not be a condemnation of the political process of society if we have been unwilling to stand up and be counted on behalf of the kind of government in which we believe and for which we are willing to work and sacrifice. Where social change seems to be urgent, we must share in that process as responsible, law-abiding citizens. The ethical values by which we live must be implemented on the level of social change. This calls ever for a careful evaluation of the means to which we give our support. The means which we are willing to use must not be in real conflict with the ends which our values inspire. Practically, this means that if we believe in democracy, for instance, we must not be a party to means that make use of bigotry, prejudice and hate. We must search and find the facts that are needed for judgment and cast our lot on the side of the issues which we are willing to embrace as our private and personal ends. In working on behalf of such ends, which are morally right as we see the right, we shall not cooperate with or be a party to means that seem to us evil – means that we would not use in our personal private life. In this sense we are our brother’s keeper; for we will not demand of any man that he do on behalf of society as a whole what as persons we would be loath to do ourselves if we were in his place.