Be there for each other.

There have been so many pundits talking about how this economic crisis has forced us to live within our means. Perhaps that is true, at least for the ones who got shafted by the crisis as opposed to the ones who brought it about. However I think there is a greater message coming out of this crisis. That message is - We need to be there for each other. Maybe it's about money. Maybe it's about emotional support. I don't know. But we need to pay attention to the suffering. We need to ask for help whatever that help might mean. We need to be willing to give help. In fact we might be doing both at once. The rugged individualist needs to get parked on the side of the road. Bill Moyers once said that the old saw of "Live and let live" should be "Live and help live." Maybe it's just listening. Maybe it's challenging someone to look at their situation in a different way. Maybe it's a hug. I think that somewhere along the way we lost something. A sense of community has been missing in a lot of places. You hear people saying all the time that neighborhoods used to be where everybody knew each other. Now hardly anybody knows each other. I'm a facebook and twitter user(not doing twitter now) but I do believe there is a danger there that we become more isolated even in the midst of social media. Rollo May the noted existential psychotherapist commented in the 70's that television itself was actually reinforcing isolation. It was bringing Johnny Carson into people's homes every night but no one really knew the people themselves. It was and still is a strange one way relationship. 

We need to take the time to listen. We need to be interested enough to interact. This doesn't mean we have to sit through endless complaining sessions from people. The trick is to separate the general complaining and whining from the hurt and scrambling and desperation that is everywhere. We hear the numbers every day. But numbers are abstract. Ram Dass said we love to make the concrete abstract because that allows us to not really engage the situation. 

It is a tough time right now. We need to engage the situation. We need to be there for each other. 

Comments

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