Don't get me wrong as yes, we do have plenty of communication by way of television, newspapers, the Internet, radio and cell phones.
Yet there is another type of communication we can't seem to grasp and that is one human being actually talking to another human being.
I went to I-Hop this past Sunday and the vestibule was crowded with those of us waiting to be seated.
We were a small United Nations with African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Caucasians all waiting to hear their names ring out so they could go in and eat.
No one was belligerent. No one was impatient. No one was shouting racial slurs or pointing a finger at this one or that one.
There were no accusations, no cursing, no furtive looks.
We all shared one thing in common, we were hungry.
We were seated closely together with others standing in the corners.
There was no eye contact as many were fiddling with their cell phones.
There were young people, old people, babies, adolescents, middle age.
I'm a people person.
I love people so I leaned over and started a conversation with one of the Hispanic families.
I asked the father what he did for a living and he replied that he tinted car windows and travelled extensively.
He seemed happy with his job.
I then turned to his oldest, a young man in his teens.
"And, what do you want to be when you grow up"?
His reply and a rather shy one was, "an architect."
I complimented him on his choice.
His parents then told me he had wanted to be an architect since he was very small.
People were coming and going as the wait now was about twenty five minutes.
I thought to myself as I looked around at all the bodies clinging to their own little spaces, "what a waste of valuable resources".
That valuable resource being us, --human beings.
We sit together, we dine together, we shop together, we pray together, we suffer together, we laugh together, we cry together, we bleed together, we die together.
How much more together can you get?
And, how much longer will it be before the light bulb goes off in our heads that we're all one in mind and spirit?
That we're systematically being divided into this class or that group, fragmented and taken advantage of, used by well heeled and maniacal people with their own sinister agendas?
I wonder how it would be if there were no television, no politicians, no internet, no cell phones.
How then would we communicate with one another?
Answer: It would be like we did it before we had all this technology.
We'd open our mouths and form the words, "Good morning, how are you today?"
How skeleton-like we're all becoming. How private, bone dry, stilted and stunted as we isolate ourselves from others, as we shun basic human contact, sitting all by ourselves, concerned solely with our own self interests, deeply absorbed in our own thoughts.
There is a lot to learn about that person or persons sitting next to you on a bus, in a restaurant, a movie theater, a doctor's office.
You'd be pleasantly surprised how much we all have in common.
Maybe, just maybe, this is one reason why the world is in such a mess.
When you dialogue with someone you come to find out that they are just as concerned about what you are, just as worried about the future, only want what's best for their families and tired of all the squabbles and battles.
Can we finally take matters into our own hands?
Let's begin to really get to know one another.
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