HUMAN CONNECTIONS YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE

Human connections are the ties that bind us together.

Whether we like it or not, we can’t look away from others like they don’t matter.

At the same time, it takes an effort to realize what caring means.

Why would anyone care about strangers in a strange land?

If you find yourself confused by the idea, the answer is shared human connections.

Another way of looking at it is the E word: EMPATHY:

 the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another

If the word empathy is too touchy / feely for you, think of G. A. S.:

Giving A Sh!t.

Same thing? Let’s call it close enough for our purposes, which is to illuminate the need for embracing human conditions.

Why G A S

When I was a young father, about the same age as my own kids now, an experienced dad explained why it’s important to answer kids’ questions whenever they ask one.

“If you don’t give them the answers they need, they’ll make up their own.”

As a result I’ve given more answers than questions just to stay ahead of the curve.

And I write this blog just in case I missed anything.

When I look at the landscape of Covid19, the vaccines, and the misinformation effort out of Fox News infecting too many, things look alarming. It’s easy to disregard the rising numbers of new infections among the vaccine hesitant with “What did you think would happen?”

While we don’t talk about Super Spreader Events, they’re still happening. And it’s a celebration of, wait for it, the end of the Covid Pandemic.

Stadiums are cleared for full capacity. The NBA finals are played before full houses in Arizona and Wisconsin.

However, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed until this year, will not have crowds witnessing ‘The thrill of victory’ or ‘The agony of defeat.’

From what I’ve read, it sounds like a mess, but we’ll still feel human connections.

Once billed as a party to celebrate “proof of humanity’s triumph over the virus,” the games are instead shaping up to be a largely television event, with little of the international party atmosphere that usually characterizes an Olympics.

“The Tokyo 2020 Games will be completely different from the past, but the essence remains the same, athletes will put everything on the line, and inspire people with their outstanding performances.”.

Human Connections Put Everything On The Line

Over a hard year our connections have been altered by a disease.

It got harder when virus deniers got sick and died. No, they didn’t get what they deserved, they got sick and died just like those who did everything right got sick and died.

Is it too much to ask for understanding? It’s worth the effort on a personal level.

“We travel and vacation just like we always have. The virus is no concern to us because we don’t go to ‘those kinds of places.'”

“Wearing a mask will make me sick.”

“I’ve never had the flu, or a flu shot, this is no different.”

“No one is going to tell me who I can and can’t see, where I can or can’t go.”

“We’re on the honor system for vaccines.”

Let’s agree that we all want to be in the comforting bosom of family and loved ones. Most of us are wired that way, but some of us short-out when confronted by adversity.

That’s when we fall back to our freedoms, our rights, and that’s good. Who doesn’t like a good civics review. In high school it was a class called ‘Modern Problems’ and it was taught by a coach / teacher.

Problems grow and compound when folks depend on unreliable narrators for an explanation of their freedoms and rights. When listeners hear warped history accounts, discredited baloney, and the sort of medical advice you wouldn’t use on a dog, there’s a line in the sand.

Good judgement is skewed.

People see positive proof of events, then hear that they shouldn’t believe what they see.

I like days full of sunshine and smiles like yesterday and the day before that bring a rush of Pollyanna feelings and emotions. And I’m no Pollyanna.

At the same time, I can’t cast a blind eye on human connections between current illness and the unvaccinated.

Instead of treating them like modern lepers, let’s add some G A S to the situation.