Community used to be less sought after and more necessary. Isolation wasn't desirable or healthy, most people needed family and friends to survive at the turn of the century. Now we can get a job where we work in a cube (alone), go out to lunch and read the paper (alone), keep "in touch" with people online (alone) and go home and watch TV (alone) if we choose. And people wonder why they feel disconnected, sad and lonely. That isn't what we are created for.
Technology is a complication beyond true measure. It's helped us find all kinds of ways for convenience but I believe it has also incited us and underlying faults to cultivate those faults, it's now acceptable or even appropriate to complain about how long Web pages take to load (impatient), it is acceptable to complain about clerks and service people (back biting), it is reasonable to email a thank you (impersonal) ... along with so much more.
We've settled for the convenience of Facebook and forgotten how to offer love and grace to the actual people in front of us. Relationships are difficult, but why do we expect anything different. The clean, sterile, impersonal online stuff isn't real and cultivates a sense of longing for more. It's like diet foods, it just doesn't satisfy the real needs so you go after more.
This week would be great to go for a walk outside, write someone a letter, go out for coffee with someone ... spend a whole day with someone.
Make the time count, make someone feel special.
