Staying Connected

P.O Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331
Phone/Fax: (08) 98 418 418
E-mail: abl-alb@omninet.net.au

Staying Connected
I met a fellow on the footpath yesterday. He isn't a friend or someone I usually associate with. As a matter of fact, he was a total stranger. I looked up and, as we passed within a metre of each other, said, "Good morning!" There's nothing unusual about that exchange for most of us. We nod at one another as we enter and exit lifts. We smile as we walk around one another in busy lines at check-outs. We step back to let older people go through doors. We speak as we pass on footpaths to exchange pleasantries. The unusual thing about the episode I just related to you was the man's response. He was clearly startled by it. He initially looked at me with what seemed like an angry look. He scowled. Then his face softened just a bit, and he grunted something. As best I could make it out, it was, "Ummm, hey." There was probably nothing deep or complex about our exchange. Maybe it was a moment of absent-minded daydreaming for him as he was walking along, and I had interrupted it. Well, I don't want to read too much into it. But it set me to thinking. Yes, I know about 9/11 terrorism and caution at airports and public places. You and I have both read the crime statistics. My wife and I have locks on our doors, and we take precautions in unattended car parks and unfamiliar places. These are reasonable precautions any thinking human being will take to be safe or to guard person and property. But some wariness is downright un-reasonable. To be so drawn into oneself that "Good morning!" startles and unnerves seems unreasonable. To be as frightened as the woman at a hospital lift the other day that she couldn't get on with a male in suit and tie already inside seems to border on the preposterous. To be so predisposed against people of other races - as a man admitted on a major highway recently - that he would not accept help from someone of a different colour is simply indefensible. Published research claims that people without social and emotional support are more than twice as likely to die following a heart attack as people with a network of caring friends. A study of 194 men and women revealed that six months after having a heart attack, 53 percent with no significant social and emotional support were dead, 36 percent who had one source of support had died, but only 23 percent with two or more sources of support had died. Are we losing a sense of civility within community? Are too many of us pulling into shells of isolation? Are we forgetting to care about each other? God created us to live in society and has told us to love our neighbours. By the way, before it slips my mind: "Good morning!"

Staying Connected

I met a fellow on the footpath yesterday. He isn't a friend or someone I usually associate with. As a matter of fact, he was a total stranger. I looked up and, as we passed within a metre of each other, said, "Good morning!"

There's nothing unusual about that exchange for most of us. We nod at one another as we enter and exit lifts. We smile as we walk around one another in busy lines at check-outs. We step back to let older people go through doors. We speak as we pass on footpaths to exchange pleasantries.

The unusual thing about the episode I just related to you was the man's response. He was clearly startled by it. He initially looked at me with what seemed like an angry look. He scowled. Then his face softened just a bit, and he grunted something. As best I could make it out, it was, "Ummm, hey."

There was probably nothing deep or complex about our exchange. Maybe it was a moment of absent-minded daydreaming for him as he was walking along, and I had interrupted it. Well, I don't want to read too much into it. But it set me to thinking.

Yes, I know about 9/11 terrorism and caution at airports and public places. You and I have both read the crime statistics. My wife and I have locks on our doors, and we take precautions in unattended car parks and unfamiliar places. These are reasonable precautions any thinking human being will take to be safe or to guard person and property. But some wariness is downright un-reasonable.

To be so drawn into oneself that "Good morning!" startles and unnerves seems unreasonable. To be as frightened as the woman at a hospital lift the other day that she couldn't get on with a male in suit and tie already inside seems to border on the preposterous. To be so predisposed against people of other races - as a man admitted on a major highway recently - that he would not accept help from someone of a different colour is simply indefensible.

Published research claims that people without social and emotional support are more than twice as likely to die following a heart attack as people with a network of caring friends. A study of 194 men and women revealed that six months after having a heart attack, 53 percent with no significant social and emotional support were dead, 36 percent who had one source of support had died, but only 23 percent with two or more sources of support had died.

Are we losing a sense of civility within community? Are too many of us pulling into shells of isolation? Are we forgetting to care about each other? God created us to live in society and has told us to love our neighbours.

By the way, before it slips my mind: "Good morning!"