Thursday, March 28, 2024

I Was Thinking... Connections

Recently at church, our minister gave us an exercise to take home with us for the week. Each member was to select a piece of paper with a word on it from a plate that was passed around. If we didn’t like the word, we could put it back and get another one.

But the plan was that we were to put that word somewhere we would see it every day and then think about what it meant for us. The word might be pray, smile, thank, share, visit, blessings, abundance, family, dream, help, grateful, relax, activate, or any other word. For the two services there must have been a hundred choices or more. The word I got was connection.

A connection can have a lot of meanings. According to the dictionary, connect means to join or fasten together. Connection is said to be an association or relationship.

So, as I pondered by word for the week, I started to think of the connections we might have as people. Some of the connections occur without us having much to say about it. The old adage, you can choose your friends but not your family is one example.

We are connected by birth if we like it or not. How firmly those connections stay in place is a matter of choice, but family is always family. As we mature, society creates new connections for us. School is one of our first societal induced connections. We are put into a grade based on age and move through the system until we graduate as the class of 1961, 1974, 1988, 1999 or 2023.

Some of these class connections may last forever while others may dissipate the day after graduation. If you’ve attended class reunions, you soon realize which connections were worth hanging on to.

A connection of our own choosing occurs when we get a job. We agreed to take a particular job and usually with it comes a new array of connections. While we voluntarily agreed to be connected to the job, we may or may not appreciate some of the other connections that come with it. We learn we will need to adapt to the other people we will work with and maybe the customers we serve.

The most personal of our connections come as we date and maybe eventually marry someone. This is a connection of our own choosing. It can be our most fulfilling connection or one that causes the most heartache. If a marriage is blessed with children a whole new connection is established. While most children eventually move out on their own, the parent-child connection lives on forever.

Today there are more ways to communicate and connect with others than ever before. Everyone seems to have a phone in their pocket and have an array of social media platforms to keep in contact.

Yet a 2021 survey stated that 1/3 of American adults have fewer than three close friends. Twelve percent said they have none. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy discussed the mental health of Americans in his book “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes-Lonely World.” He stated across all social and economic areas, many people reported they were missing a sense of belonging. How can we be lonely if we have 100 Facebook friends or hundreds of Twitter followers? Apparently, an e-mail, tweet, or message lacks the human connection most people still crave.

As Christmas approached, many of us reached out to friends we haven’t heard from since last Christmas. We sent a card just to keep in touch. Sometimes it was more personal but often it just let them know we are still alive. How many times at a funeral did we wish we had reached out to that person.

While our modern communication devices don’t guarantee we will have friends, a cell phone with no “long distance” charges is a pretty easy way to make a connection with others. It is surprising when I have made one of those calls that the person on the other end says, “You know it’s funny, I was just thinking about you.” Take “connection” as your word for the week and make one.

Did You Ever Wonder? — What age should a person be considered old enough to die of old age?

Photo: I was thinking Ron Albright

 

 

Dodge County Independent

Dodge County Independent
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Kasson, MN 55944

Dodge County Printing
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
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Kasson, MN 55944

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