Look Up

Oct 23, 2013 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

I was told the story the other day of a man on a crowded city bus who took out a gun. Everyone was so engrossed in their own little world of cell phones, iPads, and newspapers, it was several minutes before anyone even noticed what was happening. What a startling example of the society we are becoming.

How aware are we? I have to admit that I am one of the worst. But my problem isn’t usually technology; it’s my brain. I get focused on a mission and plow ahead to reach my goal and fail to see anyone around me. I can be doing anything – buying groceries, pumping gas, watching a ball game, doing chores around the house, or even walking through the atrium after church (ugh). If I am intent on what I need to do, I have tunnel vision, and as far as I am concerned, there is no one else around me.

But that is not how we develop relationships on any level.

We need to take the time to look up at those people around us. Make eye contact. Give a smile. Say a kind word.

Why do we need each other – even the strangers we encounter throughout our day? Because we are a community of citizens. We depend on other human beings to fulfill a need all people have – the need to belong – and they depend on us to meet their need as well.

So many people go through life day after day without human connection and have lost the art of community.

• Too many people are divorced or single and missing meaningful, loving human touch.
• Too many people are working jobs that involve them and a computer. Actually seeing a human face that is not on a video conference is a novelty.
• Too many of us ensconce ourselves in our technology and forget that it’s an inanimate, soulless piece of plastic.
• Too many elderly are trudging through their final days with only a few people even showing they care. And many times the only people they encounter are the ones being paid to care.
• Too many teenagers are left to fend for themselves without parental guidance – physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.

We need people – warm bodies that feel and think and reason — friends, acquaintances or even strangers who can add value to our day, and for whom we can enrich theirs.

It’s time to slow down, look up, and see who is around you. Share a smile; look someone in the eye and have a conversation.

You need others and others need you.

Spend the day consciously “looking up” at the people around you. Then leave a comment and share with us what happened.

~ Jerolyn