●♥● Distant Not Disconnected ●♥●
“Of all diseases I have known, loneliness is the worst. The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love.”
–Mother Teresa
By trade, I am an electrical engineer specializing in telecommunications. The word telecommunication comes from télé- ‘at a distance’ and communication. I guess this makes me an expert in connecting people across distances. I use copper, fibre, radio and satellite to bring people together across the globe. The electron and the photon are my messengers between those whom I unite through voice and video.
I have come to realize that I do far more than bring people together with technology. I also have a unique talent for writing which bonds people through shared experiences and insightful ideas. As an engineer and problem solver I have for many year exercised innovation and creativity to help others to achieve their goals. I gather together wisdom and knowledge from diverse sources and then skillfully implement them to aid people to connect and help each other in achieving their goals.
With technology, I unite folks face to face, visually and verbally linking them, allowing them to collaborate. With words I seek to connect hearts and minds through stories, images and ideas. None of these connections are limited by distance. We call internet meetings virtual, as if they are somehow less real than physical ones. Are the words of a newspaper or magazine more real or important than those of blog or website? Is it less real to hear the words “I love you!” whispered on the phone than directly into your ear?
I am not downplaying actual physical connections. A gentle touch has no equivalent in cyberspace right now. That does not negate the reality that we can be distant but still connected. There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Solitude can be a joy when one understands that we remain linked not matter where we are physically. I do not cease to be a son when my mother is not present. I am still a neighbour even when I cannot see those who live nearby.
Meanwhile, it is possible for someone to be lonely even amidst a crowd of thousands. Isolation is not necessary to foster alienation. Loneliness is simply the personal disconnection from all the life around us. Loneliness screams that no one and nothing cares about or notices us. It insists that we don’t matter to anybody or anything. It works to convince us that we have no meaningful relationships, connections to existence.
Mother Teresa was right, loneliness is a terrible disease. Despite our many opportunities to connect so many of us feel unwanted, unloved and uncared for. This is the disgrace of modern times. We fight so hard against viruses and disease and yet we allow ourselves to believe that we are utterly alone. It is tragic that anyone feels unnecessary. We are all significant in fabric of humanity. I cannot imagine what brushstroke would not be needed in the masterpiece of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa nor what tree would be superfluous in the grandeur of a forest. Their loss would diminish the whole.
Each of us belongs; only fear and bitterness allow us to conceive otherwise. Love binds us, and love is always there. Love abides in the kindness of a stranger. Love shines is the smile of friend. Love beckons in the words of favourite story or a old note sent to us long ago. Love is broadcast in the morning notes of a little songbird. If we do not let fear blind and deafen us to the love that surrounds and connects us then we can plainly know that we need not be lonely for we are a part of the network of life, needed and needing others.
There are no islands in the sea of humanity. We are born linked to those who love and raise us and to all the lives they also touched. As we grow our own bonds expand, for they can never diminish as our experience intermingles with life. The love and caring that we are shown cannot be extinguished by time nor space. People and life itself may seem distant but that does not make us disconnected from them. I hope what I have shared here help lift some loneliness and enables the understanding that distance in time or space does not disconnect us from love and life.
Cheers!
©2020 Scott D. Wilson
