Then And Now

I want to talk to you today about how internet culture has been exacerbated by the current health crisis. In today's world you can get anything delivered right to your front door through the internet to your home, from clothes to groceries and even a date. This reminds me of the stories my father used to tell me about his childhood. It was an era when the majority of the goods a housewife needed would get delivered to her house. He went on to say that this type of Isolation, although comfortable, easily gave way to loneliness and depression

This in turn contradicted everything my parents taught about being disabled. The older I got the more it became a social duty to go out into the community and be seen amidst the general population, doing ordinary things that people do. For instance going to school, shopping or going out to dinner. For me, the fun of shopping is the treasure hunting and the finding.

Think about it. You're finally going to get the item that you've been saving up for months to buy. Soon it will be in your wanting little hands Sure packages are fun to open. But it just isn't the same as questing to your favorite store to find the items you've been searching for at long last. Personally, Halloween just won't be quite as magical without my annual trip to the Spirit Of Halloween store. Usually. I wait all summer for them to open. This year I don't know if they will open at all.

My concern for us as a society is that this pervasive internet culture is breeding another generation of solitary shut ins. Now that the sheltering restrictions are being lifted in many cities and states and we can start to go out again you can't see a person's friendly smile under a mask. Concern for personal safety, although justified, is overriding our natural pensions to linger in our favorite places and make small talk.with those around us

On top of that many of my close friends and I are huggers. How do we do that if we are six feet apart? I'm concerned about what's going to happen to our culture if we are encouraged not to hold conventions or festivals. The solution is not just to throw your mask away and disregard all the new safety regulations that we've encountered. The solution the might be to go back to a simpler time and do what you can. Use your phone and your computers as we have been but in addition maybe write a personal one of a kind card. And remember always to be considerate of one another. We're not just a collection of singular entities, we're all members of a larger community. To counteract suspicion and mistrust, we all have to remember that.

I'm interested to know what you have done to make us all feel more like a community in this time when fear so easily isolates all of us. Keep walking with the Goddess, and I'll see you next time.