No Man Is An I(s)land

The days after. PJ Harvey stopped her concert to recite a poem. Maybe one of the „The Poem“s. Of course it’s been

John Donne’s No Man Is An Island

No man is an island, entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,

as well as if a promontory were,

as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were.

Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind;

and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

—from „Meditation XVII“

Those insights are nearly 400 years old – it’s more than calculating losses, it’s more than having freedom and feeling independent. We are all connected. If one of us leaves, if one country leaves – we all lose something.

Moreover I learned (from the sadly gone German Comedian Dieter Hildebrandt), that Donne uses the word „Iland“, not „Island“. The „I-land“ and the island.

Hopefully, there is a #secondchancetovote ….