Macmillan Dictionary defines the human chain as “a line which is formed by people holding hands with the purpose of helping someone or to give support.” As I observe the world around me there are many human chains providing help and care. When hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, or snowstorms occur people just help each other. Recently there was a giant fire in a apartment complex near me displacing 65 people. There were so many people wanting to help they put the helpers on the waitlist. There have been multiple stories of how people came together when someone was caught in a riptide in water to make a human chain to get to them and bring them to safety. We help each other out all the time.
“Even with all of our differences there is a place we are all connected. Each of us can find each others light. There’s so much to be thankful for.” Josh Groban
When these crisis moments occur we push our differences to the side and use our connectedness to help and support each other. There is the “human chair” team building activity where “each person has to sit back against the person behind her. If the team doesn’t work together, people can fall down or break the circle. The trick is to get people to stand closer together so the human chair will be tight. This requires them to let go of some sense of personal space and trust the group.” Small Business. chron.com. These moments in team building, and in life building, provide us the opportunity to use our strengths in our human chain ways to help and support others. Doing so makes us stronger as well. Everyone is the better for it.
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.” Maya Angelou
An article in Psychology Today “The Psychology of Stronger Together” says “Going back well before the creation of the great Egyptian pyramids, humans evolved the ability to create large-scale, coordinated social groups that cut across kin lines—groups that are capable of creating products that could never be created by any individual alone. This critical feature of our evolutionary story is one of the basic elements of human uniqueness.”
“Kindness begins with the understanding we all struggle.” Charles Glassman
In these moments we pull each other up and everyone is the better for it. Yet sometimes, in the day to day living, our differences get magnified and become deterrents in relationships. Our bias, judgements and differences can have negative effects in how we interact with one another. Yet what if you needed their help or what if they needed yours? Would those differences even matter or would you just help? Would these differences cause you to refuse help if you needed it? If we can work together, help each other, build human chains in all sorts of crisis moments, it means we have the ability to do this everyday. Will it require work and effort on our part? Absolutely. Will the work and effort to connect with people who have differences from you be worth it? Absolutely. So most amazing person take a moment when your bias, judgment and differences are impacting your interactions with some people and get your human chain on. When we connect more with each other we all are better for it. You can be the human chain of connection.
May your human chain be with you💜
Photo from online Cesar’s Way
