There Is No Such Thing As An Individual Poem by Lonnie Hicks

She looked at me
and asked.
'What is your answer? '

I was startled
and caught up short.

Simple question.

But I did not know
what the answer was.

'Who am I'?
I blurted out
vying for time;
I gave her my name
narrowing it to the millions
of Jim Jones in the world.

But am I my name?

She said

What else.?

'I am Hedi's Father
and Lisa's husband'

but before this response rolled away
into silence
I knew it wasn't enough.

So who else?

'I like hockey' I said
and knew even this
fell short.

How do I single out
the Me among millions?

What could I say
without out offering
fingerprints or DNA?

What would you say?

Maybe I should have given her
an address.
Only I live there.
But my address
is not my essence.

So who
in fact
is the I-
the me,
that I see-
as individual
and precious?

I really didn't
at that point
have an answer.

What about achievements?
.
How many individuals have
my job
and my name?

Fewer still.

This at least narrows it.

But then
the thought came;
I am not an individual.

I am the Me that
has a family and a history
a genealogy;
only me
has that.

I am not an individual
but a person
who can be identified
in the web of relationships
which surround me;
have surrounded me;

which in the end
have defined me.

I am not an individual.

I am all the people who
have influenced me-
nurtured me been kind to me or hurtful.

So there is then
this myth of the individual
which is not so.


But if this is not true
is it not so that much
of society and indeed Democracy itself
is premised

on the creating the conditions
for individual expression;
individual growth?

Is this premise correct
and the individual lives;
or is it that more real
is society and social relationships.?
So which is which?
But then again, one cannot touch society.

Confusing no?