Distance does not mean disconnect.
There are other ways to knock on a door.
When we can’t see others across town, across the nation, what do we do?
We reach out with the technical tools available to us today.
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why distance does not mean disconnect (full text below).
Who are you visiting over your digital “fence”?
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Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT: “Social Visiting” (from my social media platform posts on 20 March 2020)
I usually call my mom once a week. She lives in Denver. We enjoy catching up on the latest events in our lives. But lately we have been talking more often. Both of us realize the importance of visiting during a time when folks are unable to meet. In the spring of 2020, our lives have changed. What are the biggest changes in a short period of time?
Within a week virtually everyone knows the abbreviation “CDC.”
Within days we have seen more faces of doctors than celebrities on our screens.
Within moments of children waking we realize the importance of their teachers.
Within ourselves we are moving from speed to slowness, from immediate to gradual.
We miss, what we not long ago called “boring.”
We wish for a return to “normal.”
We wonder if things will ever be “the same.”
We regret the relationships we have taken “for granted.”
What should we do? As a Christian I want to initiate five principles:
- Be intentional. Reach out through online platforms asking, “How are you really?”
- Be careful. Recognize others at different stages of endurance asking, “How can I listen?”
- Be mindful. Keep assessing day-to-day concerns asking, “Do I really need ___?”
- Be managerial. Strategize long-term goals asking, “Can I live with less?”
- Be eternal. Remember mortality is true for all asking, “Am I ready?”
Join me and others as we utilize all available digital connections. Be ready to encourage, uplift, and care. I have been writing daily briefs that might encourage us past so-called “social distancing,” toward what I am calling “social visiting.” Thankfully we live in an age where proximity could mean next door or, in my case, a phone call to my mom in Denver.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.