Virtual Reality

We send messages instead of letters. 
We comment instead of call. 
We have unlimited minutes and smartphone apps that allow us to connect for free from anywhere in the world, and yet we struggle to make dinner plans, to hear each other’s voices.
We type hundreds of one-liner birthday wishes instead of writing a heartfelt card. 
We document our moments through perfectly constructed photos. 
We craft our words carefully so our posts are clever, funny, literary snapshots of our inner monologue. 

Then we anxiously wonder – as each day, month, year passes – why we haven’t accomplished that goal, or bought that house, or gone on that vacation, or had that amazing thing happen to us. 
We barrage ourselves with self-doubt and self-loathing at our incompetence to succeed in these seemingly normal occurrences and occasions.
We resolve to the idea that we must not be good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, funny enough, dedicated enough, rich enough, lucky enough.
We wrack our brains looking for the most logical reason to explain why our lives aren’t as interesting as everyone else’s.

But this world is convenient, we say.
We are busy. Rundown. Over-scheduled.
We may sacrifice authentic connection, but at least we’re still connected.
But are we really?
When we focus so much on the blanket promotion of our wins and our successes, on the curated snippets of our story but only the snippets worthy of our virtual walls, we've missed something.
We are missing something.
 
And I don’t want to miss it.
I don’t want to miss these moments.
I don’t want to miss you when you cross my path.
I want to share my story and share in yours.
I want to see your words.
I want to see them dance across my mind when I hear them in your voice or read them on the pages of an old fashioned, handwritten letter – the kind the mailman delivers to the mailbox at the end of the driveway.
I want to see your face, not in a recent profile photo, but at the opposite end of the table behind a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

We can share with each other. We can be authentic.
But we have to truly reach out beyond our screens.
We have to connect – not in virtual reality, but in the real world.