What is entwining?

Entwining holds immense power within and through itself. Those existing within the entwining hold the power of relationships with one another. Each single-celled organism, each plant, each animal, and the living systems they comprise hold the power of those relationships — they have evolved with and because of one another to be as they are, and changes to themselves produce changes in all the other members and parts of these systems.

Human beings arose out of these living systems, and for untold time we were, and believed we were, part of those systems, part of the entwining. We believed this until the moment we no longer believed…until the moment we realized we could gain a kind of power by drawing ourselves out of the entwining, holding ourselves as unique, special, different. Elevated.

We call this attempted elevation by many names. Capitalism. Militarism. White supremacy. We people who call ourselves white have attempted to withdraw ourselves from living systems while leaving other people, other living beings, all other aspects of this planet as available for our exploitation. And we white people have used this as justification for deeming ourselves superior, as if our feigned lack of connection to the entwining raises us up. As if that pretended lack of connection makes us into some kind of gods.

Our actions do not make us into gods. Our actions make us into devils, creating hells for others and for ourselves. For all the power we gain does not heal the rift we open in our own souls.

We will return to the entwining, through our choice or through our elastic connection to it. Either we will correct our actions and redefine our relationship to living systems, our fellow living beings, and our fellow humans, or we will be pulled back into the entwining and destroyed in the process. The choice is ours. Do we choose connection, relationship, healing, and wholeness? Or do we choose hubris and death?