My Dharma friend, Debby, just returned from a 3-week retreat in South Africa followed by a 3-week game tour to several national parks. The name of the game tour was Ubuntu.

Debby explained that ubuntu means something like “I exist because you exist.” Ubuntu refers to our interconnectedness and reminds us that we each belong to a greater whole.

As it turned out, Sunday was Ubuntu-day for me.

I was giving a Dharma talk at Northampton Insight Sunday night, and so had prepared a powerpoint slide show on my recent retreat in Burma. One of my traveling companions sent me several of her photos. I borrowed a projector from another Dharma friend, but couldn’t get my laptop to communicate with it.

At 4 p.m., i called my neighbor, Connie about borrowing her laptop. “Come on down,” she said. I took all my hardware to her house and within 15 minutes, she showed me the proper connections.

I drove south, then, 20 minutes away from home, realized i had forgotten to bring an extension cord. I called David, who lives in town. At that moment he was working as production manager for the afternoon show of the aerial circus show, so he asked Jerry, whom he was standing next to, if i could borrow an extension cord from the New England Youth Theater (NEYT).

Jerry and i pulled into NEYT at the same moment, and 2 minutes later, i stowed a 50-foot extension cord with a box of 4 outlets in my car.

While asking for help comes easily for some people, i’ve spent most of my life acting as if i’m self-reliant. I’m a DIY (do-it-yourself-er) from way back.  I’m even slightly scared of people, but really, you know, it is possible to ask anyone for anything. After all, we are all ubuntu, interconnected.

Thanks to 6 friends, i was able to connect my powerpoint to the projector. As we like to say in our neighborhood, “It takes a village to…” give a powerpoint 🙂