There are many kinds of worms but they are one and the same. Cut a worm in half and the one worm will be two worms. Worms are unisex. One worm will lay eggs and become many worms. One worm can produce its own weight each day in rich castings. A pound of worms each day will produce a pound of castings each day. To work effectively worms need to work together. One worm is ineffective and valueless. Many worms are effective and valuable livestock. Individual worms of any one species look alike yet they are all individuals.
These thoughts struck me today as so many persons today put individualism over the common good. They think and act like what is good for one individual is not good for the common good and vice versa. For example, if our country were to consider moving from an individual health care system based on an individual’s wealth to an universal health care system based on the value of the individual in the common good, persons would say that we will suffer paying more for less health care. It does not matter that the opposite is true in the rest of the industrial world: nations have better, more effective health care than we do at less cost. People persist that the individual, even though very select individuals, trump what is best for all.
When did this individualism come from? Certainly not from Jesus and the Gospel. The Mediterranean world of Jesus had no concept of the ‘individual’. You were not an individual but a member of group, class or nation. It has not come from nature where the most adaptable creatures that serve the common good, like worms, survive the longest. This individualism over the common good sets up a false dichotomy that says what is good for an individual is not always good for the common good and vice versa. In reality the opposite is true. It cost much more to put a young man in prison for a good part of his life than to give him a free education that will put him in an environment more conducive to avoiding prison. Yet we pour money into prisons to lock up nonviolent offenders and cut treatment and education programs for this same group.
Also diversity in one’s day makes for a healthier unified today. For example today, I talked to a friend just back from Africa; worked on plans for a pilgrimage to India and talked to the person in India who will be our guide; talked with a friend living in Chicago from New Orleans; worked with my friend Marna on the MAGV site, just to name a few of the diverse parts of my life today. Yet all these diverse activities seem naturally united.
Like worms we are individuals but like worms and all of nature we need to be together and be unified in our diversity. “When will we ever learn, When will we ever learn?” (Bob Dylan in “Blowing in the Wind”)
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