The Bootstrap Myth

Making it on my own.
They taught me that’s what
growing up would be.
They told me the dependency
of babies and children was weak.
They said maturity would mean
independent, self-sufficient.
I would come to it. Later.

As if individuation
has shown us how to survive, as if
we didn’t need each other all our lives.
Here is a stance that slows
the growing-up of our species,
a goal that holds us back
from ripening into synergy.
A view that keeps us fighting wars.

Circling in the mind, individuation
can be a dangerous neighborhood,
a place to go in stalwart company
to communally unloose
the bootstrap story’s juvenilia.
Time to shift identity from individual
to member of the Family. Growing up
means making it together.

©Susa Silvermarie 2026