Whether we recognize it or not, are we not all aware, even if only subconsciously, that we are highly dependent on others to care for us? The point might not really be whether we are or not (dependent), rather the degree of our awareness that we are.
Even if this cannot be fully acknowledged along the way, we can often catch ourselves anticipating it as we approach the idea of our death. How difficult will it be? Who will be there to help me? Who will protect my dignity in it, when I’m most vulnerable?
As we face death, we do everything we can to avoid it, not so much because we don’t want to impose on someone else in those kinds of ways, but because of how diminished we feel; how vulnerable we feel. What would happen if no one was there, if no one would love me, if no one would protect me?
In some ways, even before these particular catch-you-off-guard moments, we live in the same avoidant way. We are just more capable of masking it, trying to reduce our sense of dependency—at the very least, to make it less obvious.
All the way along our journey, we are simply more highly dependent on others than we realize.
