Did they forget to make a best friend – someone to have a laugh or a cry or a nothing with, but whatever it is, it’s still time spent with your best friend?
Or did they forget to create a home that makes them happy and comfortable and protected against the outside world when it’s really needed, and by the way, you never know when that day’s coming. You can’t really plan for it. Did they marry their jobs and fill every waking moment living, eating and breathing the work, only to find out that now that we're all remote, the job isn't the same. It doesn't fulfill the same physical, social or emotional needs. As Gertrude Stein once said about Oakland, California,"There is no there there."
I’m rambling because, A. it’s what I do, and B. I’ve been having these thoughts about people I see who are lonely, so lonely, and not in obvious ways. You have to take the time to look, which most people don’t have. And you have to care on some level. And we can only blame so much on Corona-ville for being a little less sensitive to the outside world than before, right?
I keep seeing people who are all kinds of smiley on the outside, or polished, or casual, when, in fact, they’re the opposite and their inside voices are shouting “See me!””Know me!”“Ask me!”
Overly dramatic? Maybe a little. It’s Awards Season, after all.
But this was prompted by real people in real time, some I thought I had a better understanding of...but apparently not. Really connecting with people is hard and in this day and age, we’re all programmed to question the friendly gesture and doubt the unknown caller.....sad. And disappointing.
Never underestimate the power of acknowledgment, in all of its many forms – a wave, a smile (when we could see them), a “How are you?” Being nice is a built in characteristic, either you have it or you don’t. But being kind is an intellectual choice. Just a thought.
How are you, by the way?
How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time. – Morgan Freeman