Our lives are woven together. As much as I enjoy my own company, I no longer imagine I can get through a single day, much less all my life, 1 on my own. Even if I am on 2 in the mountains, I am eating food someone else has grown, living in a house someone else has built, wearing clothes someone else has sewn from cloth woven by others, using 3 someone else is distributing to my house. 4 of interdependence is everywhere. We are on this journey together. As I was growing up, I remember being carefully taught that 5 not interdependence was everything. “Make your own way”, “Stand on your own two feet”, or my mother's favorite remark when I was face-to-face with 6 of some action: “Now that you've made your bed, lie on it!” Total independence is a 7 theme in our culture. I imagine that what my parents were trying to teach me was to take 8 for my actions and my choices. But the teaching was shaped by our cultural images, and instead I grew up believing that I was supposed to be totally “independent” and consequently became very 9 to ask for help. I would do almost anything not to be a 10 , and not require any help from anybody.