to-be-is-to-be-in-relation

# To be is to be in relation Nothing exists alone. To be at all is to be held in relation and to hold in turn; a thing wholly out of relation would not be a lesser thing but no thing. Substance is the late arrival, the abstraction we make by forgetting the relations that were there first. Relation does not happen between things already real; it is what makes them real. This is the relational imperative read all the way down: not a rule for living but the grain of being. Related: [[degree-of-reality-is-degree-of-holding]], [[the-ground-of-being-is-someone-not-something]], [[seeking-connection-presupposes-the-connection-it-seeks]] Rests on: [[degree-of-reality-is-degree-of-holding]], [[the-ground-of-being-is-someone-not-something]]