Hunger for human connection

By Carol Gee

Genuine human interaction is something we seek out. Our species likes to connect with each other. We instinctively live together in homes, neighborhoods, tribes and nations. We naturally communicate with each other, even if we cannot understand the other's language.

If you can read this you are a human being. If you can read this [1] or [2], you could be a chimp. To read the rest of the post, you must learn the Word of the Day -- "poignant" -- from Yahoo! Thesaurus:

adjective

1. Exciting a deep, usually somber response: affecting, impressive, moving, stirring, touching.

The Internet provides wonderful opportunities to make virtual human connections with people all around the world, and Tom Friedman's idea that the world is flat is correct in this regard. Today's post is a little digest of poignancy collected from some blogosphere people with whom I have connected over the years:

• From Maud Newton, a wonderful literary blogger whom I've read for years, comes this link to poignant news -- "Marie Smith Jones, last native speaker of the Eyak language dies," and this about the future of languages, from Out of the Woods Now.


• From my virtual "neighbor" TxSharon of Bluedaze comes this very poignant helpful hint -- "How to get a human on the phone," with a link to gethuman 500 database.


• The writers at Firedognight have soul -- Suzanne mentioned "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera. It is among the most poignant pieces of music I know.


• Grant McCracken I have read for years. He is a talented anthropologist, who wrote this blogpost: "Lunch hour anthropology." It contains a link to an exhibit of photographs by Gus Powell, "Lunch Pictures," including several that are exquisitely poignant.
  

Virtual poignant experiences are not the same thing, obviously, as in-person touching encounters. We go to movies or the symphony or to a museum to be moved or stirred. But you can have the same experience if you will take the trouble to watch around you, as Grant describes in his lunch hour post. I am thinking of how touching it could be to really pay attention to the warm and tender ways moms or dads greet their toddlers as they pick them up from day care. Or you might watch a replay of the STS-122 shuttle crew saying goodbye yesterday to the little crew remaining at the International Space Station. Big brave male astronauts shed tears at the occasion, and it was perfectly appropriate to do so.

Today I have taken a vacation from ranting about FISA, and I am sure my regular readers will breathe a sigh of relief. I will return to ranting and bold headings tomorrow.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)