Marcus Aurelius famously said, “That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.” (Sometimes this is rephrased as, “What is good for the bee is good for the hive,” which is not at all what Marcus Aurelius was saying but not a surprising reduction within the cultural dynamic that wants to put the individual first.) Human beings are relational, not because of our behavior or our programming, but because we all share the same source. In our overvaluation of the individual we must reject the commonality of our source. We have masked selfishness and even exploitation with the cry, “These are my rights. They were given to me by God.” And by splintering Creation into tiny, owned fragments we lost the ability to witness the whole.
In this crisis moment, and on this historic anniversary, we are in need of another spiritual reformation. The beehive is in terrible shape because we have chosen to live by the idea that whatever the bee wants to do is what is most important. And that is simply not true.