Routing and Relationship

I've recently been thinking about the difference between routing and relationship.

Routing directs something through a prescribed pathway or intermediary before it reaches its destination.

We use routing constantly.

Information is routed.

Money is routed.

Requests are routed.

Messages are routed.

Human systems depend upon it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

But I began noticing how easily the logic of routing can migrate into places where it doesn't belong.

We begin routing our knowing through approval.

We route our perception through consensus.

We route our authority through institutions, algorithms, experts, expectations, traditions, or other people before allowing ourselves to recognize what we already see.

And eventually we can forget that living relationship does not begin with permission.

Roots meet soil.

Plants respond to light.

Animals read their environment.

People encounter one another.

Life is already participating with life.

Systems route.

The living field relates.