ABSTRACT
Modern biology, chemistry, physics, cosmology and environmental sciences, as well as the human and social sciences all reveal that relationality constitutes the essence of everything. Nothing exists in isolation. All parts of nature are connected to other parts; world-wide concern for sustainable natural systems presently occupies scientists, citizens and their governments. El Nino Pacifi c currents and temperatures aff ect rainfall and climatic variations across all of North America. All humans are connected through their genetic inheritance with their ancestors, both human and non-human. All humans are connected with other humans through the cultural communities that contribute to their identity. Human beings are persons in so far as they are engaged in relationships. When there is no “other” for me, I am a non person. One person is no person. We live together or we do not live at all. We must dispel the notion that we live tangentially, each one of us occupying separate space. Rather, we live in a human fi eld where the past echoes and fi ngerprints the present, and the announcement over the Internet of an invention in Tibet catches the attention ten minutes later of an engineer in Mexico. Th e fi lling out of our soul, the becoming of a richer more complex person happens with and because of other persons. We come alive when we share our space with another and when an other shares their space with us.
