only connect

the title of this piece comes from e.m. forster & in the early days of the interwebs the new yorker would publish a short column of interesting websites using this title as well

it would seem we still need lessons on human connection

you'd think after about 4 hundred thousand years of homo sapiens we would've figured it out by now

we live in a frightening time of massive multiple upheavals  

the world i knew as a young man is gone

only to be replaced by 

what?

we have yet to figure it out

we continue in the creation of our species even as we don't have a schematic

we face so many crises in an unknown bloody & mercurial landscape

but we have in our possession powerful tools to connect with our fellow human beings

for we still have that fundamental desire & need to connect

i am now at the age where death & disease make their terrifying presence known

we often are wrapped in the drama of our own creations within our own heads that we may forget that those who are surround us suffer too 

each of us is unique but we are ordinary as well 

we all want the same & similar things

like a face that looks into yours & tells you that you are loved

i am a writer not by profession or career 

i don't make money from writing

but by temperament 

& i think the greatest thing a writer can receive from readers & brothers & sisters in the art

is a quick note of thanks & gratitude

it ain't much

but we can use our powerful tools of electronic information for good as well as evil

hell i can turn to a video platform like youtube & watch in real time a livestream of someone in a city on the other side of the world or see our earth from the vantage of the international space station

take a step back & you realize what miraculous tools we have 

we can use these tools for connection 

drop a note to the writer that means much to you

say hello to your loved ones & friends

share yourself because man when you grow old you realize the time we thought we had that seemed like it could not be measured is so damn short

& in the end, as the beatles tells us, in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make

be kind of a hippie & try for god's sake to 

practice kindness & love

for we will never get these years back

& there is no ice crean & beer in heaven & hell