The Disconnect

Why do we, as humans, live so disconnected from so many things that are vital to our lives?

For example. Let’s start with food, since that is what I am thinking about most of the time. We once lived in a time when we grew our own. That’s long-gone. Then, we went to a general store and told the worker what we wanted, and they handed it to us…but at least we knew that the supplier of eggs to our general store was our chicken-farming neighbor. Now, we go to the grocery store and pluck a can of beans off of the shelf. Where were they grown? No idea. Who grew them? No clue. Old El Paso may be distributing them, but what does that even mean? Are there other ingredients in this can besides beans? Yes, but rarely do we look at the label. And in fact (I learned this when I started living gluten-free), there are ingredients in this can that they don’t even list on the label. Yet…we put it into our bodies.

Our bodies. Aren’t they supposed to be a temple? Yet how often to we really listen to them, really give them what they need? Really care for them? No, I think we tend to use them. We make our bodies work hard, depend on them to do what we ask of them, fill them with food that we know little about and that more often than not isn’t really that good for them, and we ask them to function on very little sleep.

And what about the earth? We are called to care for the earth yet, like our bodies, oftentimes end up using it with no concern of our impact and without recognizing and appreciating everything that it gives to us…you know, like oxygen. In Asia and the Middle East, they used to eat sitting on the ground, reclining, etc, in fact, I still eat like that here in India sometimes. Maybe that’s why picnics are so fun – because you eat them not only outside (where everything tastes better), and on the ground, which is where most of our food originally comes from anyways.

Lastly…each other. We each live individual lives, in a hurry to get things done. We send text messages, emails, pray that we will get someone’s voicemail so that we don’t have to spend the time talking to them. I am even guilty of skyping with somebody who is sitting just down the hallway from me, or calling my mom who is upstairs when I am in the basement…what stops me from going to them and talking face to face? We are busy, we claim…yet we crave community. What stops us from connecting to the things in our life that we all want to prioritize but for which we “don’t have time”?