The Synergy Project Magazine - October 2020

pheromones affect the behavior
of all the other bees in the hive. It
certainly is not an overstatement
to say that a queen bee is a strong
female.
Step back for a moment and
take a wider view of the beehive.
There are tens of thousands of
worker bees, guard bees, and
nurse bees making sure the hive
can run as usual. Without worker
bees, the hive would starve.
Without nurses, there would be no
young to keep the beehive thriving
for years. If none of the workers
would guard the hive, wasps
or ants would ravage the hive’s
honey stores. The queen bee is not
running the beehive alone.
While she is called a queen, all
parts of a beehive must function
together for the hive to survive. She
might be the most powerful bee in
the hive, but that does not mean
she is the only bee in the hive, or
even that she does everything by
herself. The entire beehive forms a
community that works together for
the good of all.
Insects such as bees do survive
by instinct. They are not making
a conscious decision to help each
other out. Even so, there is a
stark contrast between the idea
of independence in U.S. culture
and in a beehive. People do have
the ability to be independent and
survive, but sometimes cultural
emphasis may take this idea a little
too far.
Reliance on a community does
not have to mean that somebody is
not powerful or insufficient. Rather,
a secure support network can be a
tool to help every member of the
community survive. A powerful
person does not have to push away
their community. One can be both
unconstrained and communityoriented,
much like a queen bee.
The beauty of culture is that it
is, to some degree, fluid. Culture is
not set in one spot with traditions
that may never be changed.
People have the power to mold
and change culture through the
decisions they make and actions
they take. Independence can be a
wonderful thing, but forgetting the
importance of community is not.
In this season of COVID-19,
it is more relevant than ever
to recognize the importance of
a community network. While
cultural emphasis may portray
independence as the ideal, there is
nothing wrong with finding support
from others. Be there for others
and let them be there for you - it’s a
lesson from the beehive.