Connect the Bridge
Our lives seem microwave-prepared, and we struggle to connect the bridge between communicating, compassion, and character. In our society we sprint through life, focusing on insignificant misunderstanding, indifference, loneliness, and self-righteousness. We are gasping for the next technology update. Instead of bridging the gap between generations, communities, and cultures; we isolate ourselves further via technology tools. We should place a stop gate to communication barriers like unfamiliar clichés, medical jargon, business abbreviations, slang, and lingoes. Speaking of the cliché, water under the bridge, misunderstanding spans a generation between generations and families. Additionally, Instead of communicating with our parents, friends, colleagues, and relatives, we text. Effortlessly, we email, and send secure messages, instant messages, faxes, and internet global communication, instead of face-to-face encounters. We zoomed through drive-in cleaners, drive-in banks, drive-in fast food restaurants, drive-in churches, and drive-in grocery stores. Whatever happened to essentially gathering for coffee without glaring or playing on your iPhone, iPad, and laptop? Can we swing open the bridge of communication, and express ourselves up close and personal minus the modern electronic devices.
Besides, we lost the ability to care for others. Especially driving on the highway, road, and local bridge traffic. Abruptly, a driver swishes past you and mistakenly runs you off the road. In the meantime, you are taken to the hospital and wait for hours in the hospital. After leaving the hospital, you call in sick, your supervisor threatens to fire you, and you are very insensitive. Your loved ones ignore hearing your tiresome misadventure. Does this seem familiar? You wonder whatever happened to the bridge of compassion, and families desiring to support one another.
Moreover, the bridge of caring is a lost art, as well as the bridge of character. What is character? Character is respect, trust, having a moral conscience, and self-control. What does that mean, doing what is right, not doing what I say, or not what I do? We lie, we disrespect authority, and treat the church as a social club. We lack self-control because we have no moral conscience. We purchase videos on how to have self-control, attend customer service classes on respect, and watch YouTube sermons on moral conscience. Perhaps, we learned these traits during childhood, and carelessly omitted them as we matured.
Unquestionably, we can bridge the gap, and link to our community, aging generation, co-workers, and most importantly our families. The methods to bridge the gap are turning off the television, waiting to text, even writing a letter to loved ones, and having sit-down meals with families. Hopefully, dining more than once or twice a year, like during the holidays. Road rage will be outlawed, and elderly drivers will be screened prior to driver's license renewal. Students are taught to respect the teachers in the school, pastors are allowed to teach about morality, and children learn self-control from infancy. Most important reconstruct the bridge, and reconnect the bridge of relationships, one steel cable at a time, and see where the bridge will take you!
