Collective behavior

Animals coordinate in remarkable ways. Consider a school of tetras, or mobbing birds, or groups of meerkats.

It’s a wordless expression of, “This is what we’re doing!”

Everyone falls in line. The group acts together. Movement, synchronized.

We can fall into this, too. And it’s not just at the fringes where mob-mentality and groupthink occur.

It’s in our day-to-day. In subtle ways. Like a scent that lingers with us. Or a social marinade that seeps in over time.

And depending on who surrounds us, we can be seasoned into courage and resilience, friendliness and generosity … or tenderized into cynicism, judgement, fear, and complaint.

So it’s worth carefully considering: Who’s in the room? Who walks beside me? Who shares the air I breathe?

Because our independence only extends so far; our lanes are inevitably influenced by fellow travelers and the surrounding currents.