Root for Others
When the world rises, so do you.
“It’s in keeping with Nature to show our friends affection and to celebrate their advancement, as if it were our very own.” - Seneca
It’s hard to root for others. Harder than we admit. Watching someone else succeed can feel like watching your own shadow lengthen- suddenly you look smaller than you thought you were. Their victories seem to announce our failures to us, their brilliance can make our own light and hard work feel dimmer. And when we look at those behind us, cheering them on can feel just as threatening. We fear that by lending them strength, we somehow weaken our own, as though encouragement were a finite resource that, once given away, leaves us with less.
But this is the illusion of ego, and the Stoics warned us about it. Marcus wrote that “what is good for the hive is good for the bee.” When you cheer for another’s progress, you strengthen the whole order to which you belong. The higher human order. You remind yourself that life is not a ze…
