Reordering

Often parts of my day involve talking to various family members (adult children or my mom) on the phone, texting with a child, or having conversations with the family members here at home. Spending my time this way is important; probably one of the most important things that I do. Yet I realized today that these types of activities never make it to my to do list for any given day. 

This got me wondering a bit. Our society is so incredibly disconnected from one another. People express feelings of loneliness at extremely high rates. Social organizations have significantly fewer members. And perhaps most importantly, the degree of fear people have for strangers and people different from themselves is huge. Of course, it's hard to connect with someone you fear, but it's easier to fear people you never connect with. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem there. I'm fascinated in the whole phenomenon. 

But back to my to-do list. Am I alone in the lack of relationship building on my list? Is everyone else's list equally task oriented and result driven? Did people in earlier times focus differently on how they would fill their day? Did they even keep to-do lists in the same way we do?

I don't want to idealize the past because there were certainly some extremely challenging and disturbing parts to how people lived, but they were more connected with each other. They had to be to survive. I don't really have any answers at all here, just musings and questions. I firmly believe that we need to change, to approach our lives differently if we are going to survive and thrive. Right now so many people are so disconnected and stressed and anxious and angry that life is not sustainable. Maybe putting people first in our priorities is a good first step. The world won't stop spinning if the tasks we think we should go don't get done, but without connection and relationships it won't be a world worth living in.