The contrasts with our myriad of choices of communication today are stark. I sometimes think to myself, "Why is loneliness even a word these days?" It would seem that all we have to do is pick up the phone or dash off an email to feel more connected and less isolated. Yes, we don't have the same physical proximity we once enjoyed but ought that be a consideration?
Sad to say we can't and we don't just pick up the phone and call the friends who used to live nearby. The phone lost its luster just as it became portable and the price of a long distance phone call dropped to near zero. Who even considers long distance charges anymore? Or utters the phrase, they are calling long distance. With cost no longer the impediment it once was, why do the barriers to connection seem greater than ever?
The only conclusion I can draw is that habits once broken are hard to resume. Or to juxtapose the Doobie Brothers album, What Were Once Habits Are Now Vices.
Our vice or shortcoming is our inability to place the local calls we once made nonchalantly, and more importantly to accept these calls ourselves and not let them go to voicemail. Recall a time when the phone could ring 40 or 50 times if we felt so inclined. Now the wonders of automation interrupt this phenomenon on the 4th or 5th ring.
Now that my friends are scattered it takes an effort to feel that same sense of closeness. Our high school reunions are once such effort that returns that wonderful feeling, even if only for a few hours. I guess that is why I've worked so hard on committees of like-minded classmates to make these events a reality. The glow of good feelings last for a while after a gathering. Years can pass and these recollections still appear clearly in my memory. Best of all it allows me to remember what it once was like to have all my friends nearby. It's priceless.
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