The lead poem in Walt Whitman's great work, Leaves of Grass, is titled Song of Myself. It begins with the words "I celebrate myself". These words make for a first impression that the poem is a self-serving or even narcissistic exercise. However the reader soon comes to appreciate that Whitman is really exploring the idea that what affects you affects me - and vice versa. His third line is "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you".

Whitman explores the territory surveyed by John Donne a few hundred years before him and by Mary Oliver in more recent times. John Donne stated that no one should view themselves as an island but as part of a continent, for:

"if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee".

Mary Oliver wrote: "I believe in the soul - in mine, and yours, and the bluejays, and the pilot whales. I believe each goldfinch flying away over the coarse ragweed has a soul, and the ragweed too, plant by plant, and the tiny stones in the earth below, and the grains of earth as well. Not romantically do I believe this, nor poetically, nor emotionally, nor metaphorically ... but steadily, lumpishly, absolutely." (Winter Hours, 1999)

Each poet expresses a truth we are encountering more and more deeply through scientific disciplines as diverse as biology and quantum physics. These are helping us to understand the world in which we live. And each is inviting us towards an appreciation that we live in a universe made up of interconnections and interdependencies. There are no individuals, only persons: interdependent, interrelated and interconnected.

As I see it, Australia is having a tough time struggling to free itself from the effects of the individualistic lie. In many areas of policy we still have an "I'm alright, Jack" view towards the world's poor and suffering as if their plight cannot affect us.

Witness the ease with which we made budget cuts to foreign aid. We are one of the world's 20 wealthiest countries and yet we are cutting funding to the world's poor as if world poverty cannot affect our stability. Likewise, we help create the world's refugees by participating in wars and then we largely ignore their plight and even actively indulge in acts of cruelty towards them. In an interconnected universe these decisions cannot but come back at us.

Likewise there is a refusal to recognise that degrading the environment cannot but affect our neighbours and in turn directly or indirectly affect us. Poisoned ground water is not a distant problem but one that will come home to roost. And a higher incidence of destructive tropical cyclones while nations disappear under the waves will increase the likelihood of regional instability.

On Sunday I will be speaking at the annual Palm Sunday Peace and Refugee Rally. Palm Sunday has as its frame the idea that peace is created through peace making. Peace making is an active process. The aim of peace making is to create a state of existence that is best expressed through the concept of Shalom. Shalom is a way of living that is characterised not just by the absence of war or conflict but by a deeper state of fulfilment. Shalom exists when all have a safe place to call home, sufficient food and water that is free from contamination.

In an interconnected world I can only have peace if you do, and when "things happen" to women and children on Nauru "things happen" to me too. I am affected. Deeply affected. Our current refugee policy, which sees us legitimising cruelty for some supposedly higher purpose, cannot but affect our psyche. And if we keep declaring war on terror, drugs, boats and the world's suffering we will end up with battle fatigue and shell-shock. It is the way the way the interrelated universe works.

This nation is not a detached island floating free and beyond the fate of others, no matter how hard we try to frame ourselves in that light.

Peter Catt is an Anglican priest currently serving as Dean of St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. He is a member of a number of environmental and Human Rights organisations and serves on Anglican Social Justice Committees at both Diocesan and National level.  He is President of A Progressive Christian Voice and is a Chair of The Australian Churches Taskforce of Refugees.