Our Broken World: A series of ever-changing opinions

Human Connection: The Hero in Disguise

     Over the course of a life time, people often form friendships that last only a few weeks, while others last significantly longer, some even remaining life-long bonds. For being such a social species, it is strange how these kinds of connections are often depicted as weak in the eye of the public, and that this has led to a place where people are brought up lacking empathy, and along with it, the ability to see need to help others who are not their own. Does this mean that humans inherently lack empathy? Of course not! However, it does entail that through the inability to deal with problems outside of by one's self, it has created a dangerous social construct in which everyone needs to tear others down in order to achieve greatness.

     Part of this is also a issue of pride, where people are brought up to think that such things such as asking and accepting help proves that they are weak, dumb, or worthless, creating an unhealthy environment to work or live. Now, emotional intelligence has been brought more into these newer generations, but it still is not nearly enough, as some scary numbers have been climbing rapidly among the adolescent age group. This work has only started more recently, and it is nowhere near enough to erase the many generations forever etched into history that have told us that our fears are invalid and that no one else feels this way. These claims are wrong, and none should ever feel alone in their sadness or anger or fears because everyone has them, and the evolved brain of a human is made to feel this way. We need to work on validating the feelings of everyone, even if we do not agree with them, for the only way that humans can get better overall is to understand the problem before we can fix it.

     It is strange to be in a world where the opportunities to form such connections to new people has been limited, and missing people that we never thought we would or could, but now is the best time to reach out and just say hi. That contact in your phone of that distant friend whom you are no longer sure if they still hold that status anymore? Say hi. Send a picture of a flower, a leaf, an animal, heck, they may even find a random rug interesting. And if they never respond, at least you tried, right? Know that most everyone is doing nothing because they just no longer feel up to it. It is not just you, far from it. Almost everyone is bored out of there minds, but still cannot find the drive to do anything anymore. I, personally, have given up on brushing my hair, even after stepping out of the shower, and it dries a curly mess. Go and find some covid memes, and you will see even more of the same; people who have given up on practicing basic hygiene because they live by themselves, single parents who have drunk more wine than they have in their entire lives previously, and teenagers who think about picking up an instrument and then deciding to lay on their bed and just stare into oblivion. The ceiling has never been so interesting; I speak from experience.

     Somehow, amidst all this chaos, people have still found ways to make it through life, how they are doing it is beyond me, and I do not think that anyone else really knows what they are doing, either. We are all kind of just waddling through this together, even as - thanks to social media and the news - the world still rages on with more conflict between the losses of many jobs that have not been regained, the division that masks have caused, and as it somehow is almost a political statement to wear one. Mental health has never been more important than these moments of shut down in many places, and it would just benefit everyone to practice emotional awareness and to take a break to just breathe. Just breathe. Do it for yourself, and no one else. Find someone to talk to, find someone to listen to. It will help you feel not so alone, and even I have run into some random strangers and had a thirty minute long conversation with them because neither of us have seen another human being in a stretch of time that has lasted far too long. It helps, it really does.