Cindy Wigglesworth breaks her model of the Twenty-One skills of spiritual intelligence into four quadrants. The first five skills are in quadrant one which is labeled “Self/ self awareness.” The next six skills fall in quadrant two which is labeled, “Universal Awareness.” The first skill in this second quadrant is the awareness of interconnectedness of life. This skill also happens to be identified in the seventh of the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism which is the affirmation and promotion of respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to a grieving friend that, “A human being is part of a whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion.”27 What Einstein states so beautifully is a truth that more and more of humanity are waking up to: the fact that we are not isolated islands, but rather we are threads in a vast web of interconnectedness.
Wigglesworth, Cindy. SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence (p. 68). SelectBooks, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
During the Covid-19 pandemic there were shortages in many stores blamed on the broken supply chains. The term “supply chain” became a common concept when toilet paper was not on the store shelves.
To what extent are we aware of the supply chains upon which we are dependent for resources that contribute to our well being? Most of the elements of these supply chains are invisible to us. We, ourselves, are components of many supply chains and our activities have positive and negative effects on the outputs of these chains. To what extent are we aware of and grateful for the jobs that people perform to keep supply chains working effectively and efficiently? Looking at work from the perspective of systems thinking leads to the conclusion that most work is sacred.
The awareness of interconnectedness and the concomitant awe and gratitude is an important skill of spiritual intelligence.
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