connectedness...

Disclaimer: Upon entering this blog, you may be thinking, awww, what a sweet little blog. But I have to tell you that sometimes pictures are deceiving; and sometimes bloggers ponder things a bit longer than what is necessary for any given subject. Sometimes they get wordy and write longish blogs which noone will wish to read.

I have a little something to say about people groups & the Saggy Baggy Elephant. Are you familiar with this story? There's an elephant named Sooki who is told by a parrot that there's something wrong with him. "What kind of animal are you, anyway?" So the elephant, at first, wants to be like the beautiful, sleek tiger whose skin fits so well. Then he tries to shrink his skin by soaking in water like the crocodile. But in the end, he finds a whole herd of big, brave, friendly elephants & fits right in. K. So now you know the story.

Having said that, I now want to tell you that this post has nothing to do with elephants & has nothing to do with being insecure about the way you look. Have you noticed the great abundance of information that we have swirling around us in this generation? It is likely that you have. And do you realize that your knowledge-set sets you apart even more so than your looks? So when you find someone who knows the things that you know, it really feels like a big deal, especially when you seem to know & like the obscure, overlooked details of the world.

It's like this: you go to get a coffee or buy a necklace at the art fair & someone makes an Emperor's New Groove reference, not expecting that you will notice. You think to yourself, now here's someone I can relate to! You may never speak to this person again, but it's certainly nice to know they're out there. It's reassuring when you happen to find someone like yourself in a great big world full of various people. Sometimes you may be reading a book where the author references some little-known work which it just so happens that you have read, or possibly a small out of the way town that it just so happens you've visited. You know that, had it not been familiar, you would've just skimmed right over that part, but instead, suddenly you feel like you're part of the club. It's not like this little bit O'knowledge makes you some kind of genius. You could have easily traveled the world & read a thousand other books and never got to that one mentioned. But the fact is, you did, & though you are parted by hundreds of years from the soul of this writer, suddenly you feel connected to something.

So, there is much to be said about this topic and there are a great many who say a great deal about it. I am not one of them. I have only a little to say, and we're now coming to the end of it. People are particularly worried about how we will all stay connected with our neighbors in this modern age of online communication. I have to agree that there is reason for concern here for the exact reason that I have mentioned. That is that people want to fit in, and one does not always fit into his/her immediate surroundings. People say, "What kind of animal are you, anyway?" And guess what, now you can Google it!

It's time for me to go now, but comfort yourself with this thought. I think, in this age of technology, people still just want the same things they have always wanted- to find real people who love the way they do, to come into contact with something familiar, especially for communication. If we all end up mute, due to the loss of verbal communication, then, well... I don't know what, but at least we'll have the comfort of knowing that somebody out there gets us.