The idea of connecting, or connections, has concerned me for a long time, on all planes of subjective and objective questioning and theorizing. And now I would like to know what others think. Let your responses be as free-wheeling as you please, or answer some questions I will list here and go from there.
1.) What does "connecting" mean? What does it mean to you?
2.) What forms do connections take?
3.) What helps connecting? What inhibits it? Something personal, technological, social, political, geographical, temporal?
4.) What is the good of connecting? What is the evil?
5.) What are examples that come to mind, whether from the news (politics, crime, weather, etc.), art, etc.?
And so on. I will keep things anonymous, unless you specifically want credit (and if you reference or allude to a newspaper, or speaker, or of the like). After a week or so (pretty much whenever I feel like it), I will synthesize all of it together, including my own thoughts, into something portentous. I hope.
You may post your replies as a comment on this post, on my Facebook page (Christian Hendricks), my Twitter (XtianHendricks), or email (composingpenguin@gmail.com).
Connecting to me feels like two people who share something deeply in common. Not just "oh, you like Nirvana, too!" common, more like "wow, we both are extremely interested in musical genres and clearly have much to discuss/share/interact with on this subject".
ReplyDeleteConnections are best in person. Nothing beats a live human sitting next to you. Aside from that, some people thrive with online or written correspondence, but live interaction is still necessary to keep a healthy relationship, I think. Skype and Facetime are other amazing technological developments that allow long-distance relationships. One of my friends communicates with her boyfriend every day via the computer; they read books aloud to each other, write stories together, knit projects together, listen to each other's musical endeavors, etc. They're making it work.
One of the main things that helps a connection continue and develop is sharing the same stage of life. I think it's extremely important to have friends who are NOT in the same stage as you are, but the ones that you're going to have the most time for will most likely be the ones doing the same things at the same time as you. When I was in college, my closest friends were mostly other college students. Now that I'm a young mother, quite a few of my friends are other young parents, simply because I go to play-groups, the park, the nursery at church. But I feel like I'd fall into a close-minded or monotone rut if I only hung out with parents!
Connection gives you a chance to air your opinion, stand it up against or alongside other opinions from a person whose voice you value (even if they disagree with you on a subject), explore shared interests together, evaluate life experiences, contemplate philosophical questions, search for the meaning of life, grow in character, find and express compassion and sympathy... so many positives come from connection with another person. People who are in different stages of life find different meaning/ideas/knowledge, which they can share with each other. I greatly value the words from my 90 year old friend Teddy as much as I value the words from my 19 year old friend Tyler! Their different perspectives are unique, useful, and lovely.
So far, I've only been talking about connections through friendship. My sleepy mind can only comprehend that one area right now ; ) I know there are drawbacks of connections, like sadness when connections fade over time or distance, strife when connections clash in conflict, difficulty in establishing connections if one is an introvert, and so on, but it seems like the pros of connections outweigh the cons. At least, they do in my book.
Now I'm not sure if I thoroughly answered what you were asking, but Harmony seems to be waking up.........
Hmmm, well I was just checking back in to see what other people had to say, and it looks like people have not yet figured out how to use the comment box or something. I'm sorry!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I have started writing the post, and plan on incorporating just this issue into it.
ReplyDelete