Reconnect the Connection

Hello my dawlinks!  It's your Yenta.  I've been traveling around Florida and have to tell you there are some very nice parks here; who knew? 

Back in the sixties, the season of love, as we called it -- or the age of enlightenment --  there was a movement afoot that a lot of people didn't farshteyn (understand), perhaps it was ahead of its time, where understanding of oneself was too esoteric.  It was along the same line as those that were "finding" themselves, using meditation to oysbreytern (expand) their minds and get closer to… whatever they wanted to get closer to.  Self expression had become the norm among the collegiate sect and beyond, with the coffee houses, "experimental" atonal music, poetry, self-induced escapes (if they so chose) and an affection for nature.  There was more to it , of course,  but it's not all masbir zayn (explainable).

All of this led to the egoistish (selfish) seventies, which bled into the groys (big)-haired eighties, and I'm not quite sure what happened in the nineties since I was still reeling from the thirty years before.  But all that's water under the bridge, as it's said.  Let's kibbitz what this is really about.

In all my vegslayt (traveling), the one constant was the people that wanted to find happiness within themselves.  The disconnect they felt, the one we didn't want back in the sixties, was and is prevalent in our lives haynt (today).  Something so embedded and unnamed that it gnaws at us daily and yet is untouchable.  This is something your Yenta knows about, my dawlinks.  A road long traveled from the old country, to the new world - froth with oyfgehaytert (excitement) and trepidation. 

One person was telling your Yenta that he went to his church, as he does every Sunday, but couldn't connect the way he thought everyone else was.  He actually thought something was "wrong" with him.  Going through the motions of what he thought he was supposed to do, hoping something would click, he did this every week without fail for years until finally he couldn't do it anymore.  Something DID click.  Him. 

Liblings, with all the things we have to "bring us closer" to one another, we're more isolated than ever.  With the advent of shopping online we no longer have to go to a store and kibbitz with other people and interact, the cell phones we carry prevent us from narish (silly) conversations with those around us, libraries are falling by the wayside, as are bookstores.  Reading, itself, is threatened.  Information is getting to us but the absorption is not, and all because we've cut ourselves off from one another.  That interaction that is so important as eyfel (babies) is still important as we grow up and grow old (neither of which will your Yenta ever do). 

Enlightenment doesn't come from the Internet, the TV, satellite radio, voicemail, or your smart phone.  It comes from within and includes our interaction with other people; talking with strangers in the checkout line, the nurse at the doctor's office, the teacher at school or the homeless person in the park.  We are all part of one another and to detach from that causes stress which causes tension which causes veytik (pain).  Why add to your veytik?

Here's your challenge:  One day a week -- mind you, just one day  --  disconnect from your electronics.  Don't go on your computer, limit your use of the cell phone, don't turn on your TV.  Go out and actually talk to another nefesh (human being).  I'm not going to tell you you'll feel better right away but you might be surprised at a few things.   A better feeling in you, perhaps a lower energy bill, maybe even something accomplished that's been needing your attention.  It couldn't hurt!

Your

Yenta