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this week's insight - Ubuntu "I am because we are."
Listening this week 🎧: Kilby Girl
I recently watched a documentary called Celtics City—a full history of the Boston Celtics and how they revolutionized basketball. It covers everything: the players who stood up to segregation, the legacy passed from one generation to the next, and the stories behind all 18 championships.
Side note: it’s hands-down my favorite sports documentary to date. And even if your vibe is more “go sports,” I swear this one will still speak inspiration into you.
There was one segment about the 2008 Celtics championship team that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It introduced a concept called Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a South African philosophy that means “I am because we are.” It’s about shared humanity. Mutual responsibility. The idea that our well-being is deeply connected to one another’s.
Doc Rivers, then head coach of the Celtics, shared this concept with his team. He believed that when one person succeeded, everyone did. If you defended your teammate, passed the ball, moved with trust—everyone rose. It wasn’t just a strategy. It was a way of living. And they won a championship because of it.
The world feels heavy right now. Between violence, natural disasters, broken systems, and a creeping sense of helplessness, it’s hard to know where we stand—or what to do.
But maybe the answer doesn’t start with action alone.
Maybe it begins by remembering that we belong to each other.
This week, we’re grounding ourselves in the idea of Ubuntu—not to ignore what’s hard, but to root ourselves in the good that still connects us.
“I am because we are. If I am to be better, we should be better. If I want you to be better, I should be better”
- Desmond Tutu
Ubuntu is not just a word—it’s a worldview. It says:
“I am because you are.”
Your joy is my joy. Your pain is my pain. We rise—and rest—together.
Desmond Tutu described Ubuntu as the essence of being human. A person with Ubuntu is “open and available to others, affirming of others, not threatened that others are able and good.”
In a time where so much encourages division, comparison, or individualism, Ubuntu reminds us: we are not separate.
And connection, real and actual connection , isn’t just nice. It’s necessary for our emotional well-being, our resilience, and our ability to keep going.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about belonging—and, honestly, how I haven’t been feeling it. Not sure why exactly. Just that low, lingering sense of not being fully part of something. Maybe you’ve felt it too.
So this week, I tried this simple mental exercise. And maybe it’ll help you, too:
Close your eyes.
Think of three people, past or present, who’ve had an impact on you. Maybe they made you laugh at the right time. Maybe they encouraged you. Maybe they just showed up when it mattered.
Now imagine that connection as a thread between you. Nothing dramatic, just a quiet reminder that you’re not alone.
Then, think of someone in your life today who might need that same kind of support. Picture a thread extending from you to them—a small, invisible way of saying I’m here.
Stay with this feeling for two minutes and feel everything that comes up.
I think that’s Ubuntu. That’s belonging—even when it doesn’t feel obvious.
Ubuntu reminds us that we’re not meant to do life alone. But it doesn’t have to show up in big, dramatic ways. Small, intentional choices can carry that spirit forward.
Here are a few to try moving forward:
Lift someone up. Send a note. Say it out loud. Let someone know the way they show up in the world matters to you, and probably to more people than they realize.
Let someone in. Share a moment of your own mess or uncertainty with someone you trust. Ubuntu goes both ways.
Pause before reacting. The next time someone frustrates you, ask yourself: What might they be carrying that I can’t see?
This isn’t about pretending things are okay when they’re not. It’s about choosing connection over isolation, and remembering there’s power in being for one another—even in quiet, simple ways.
 | Kyle Cease: |
 | Jefferson Fisher: |
 | Melinda Gates: |
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