We are all connected

I heard an interview with artist Jenny Odell recently, and something she pointed out really stuck with me.

She mentioned how – when we look around our living space, it’s easy to think that we are in a self-contained interior where “everything is mine” or “all these things are in my apartment.” But thinking just a little beyond our own walls, you’ll realize that we are actually surrounded by objects that only function because they are connected to the outside world and supported by other real people. Objects like: the faucet connected to the water treatment plant, the light fixtures fueled by the electric grid, the trash bin whose content gets hauled away, the toilet that flushes into a sewer system, the screens powered by internet cables, etc etc etc.

This has changed the way I look at houses ever since. Now on my neighborhood walks, I see not just stand-alone structures, but organisms with visible and invisible tendrils shooting out everywhere, linking us to a vast network of infrastructure, resources, and people that our lives depend on. To me, this revelation feels deeply ironic, because even the single family home (a symbol of success for the nuclear family! the epitome of the American dream! an emblem of our independence and self-reliance!) cannot invalidate how literally and figuratively connected we are.

If 2020 has taught me anything, it is that despite this country’s dedication to rugged individualism, we are profoundly interdependent on each other. And I hope that no matter how the election results turn out, we remember this lesson for a long, long time to come.