Being seen

 As we still do the majority of our meetings via ZOOM there is still much WOW! about the technology.  I was on a ZOOM meeting last week and there I am chatting with and listening to and learning from someone in Oklahoma, a person in British Columbia and another individual in Arizona; I will never get over how cool that is.  Alas, there are also the frustrations and nothing beats in-person meetings for connection.  

Someone sent me a meme that compared being on a ZOOM call to holidng a seance; as one waits for folks to join there are the questions of "Are you there, Mike?"  "We can't hear you."  "We hear you, yet can't see you."  Classic.

This morning while participating in a ZOOM style Bible Study, one participant who was joining by phone while on her way to her office to get on her computer said, "I'm here. I'm not visible yet."

In the blockbuster film from several years ago, AVATAR, the blue aliens expressed love by saying, "I see you."  Some of us are old enough to remember the children's television show, ROMPER ROOM and the magic mirror segment were the hostess would hold up the magic mirror and say, "I see Tommy and Johnny and Elizabeth...." I watched that damn show daily for years and not once did I hear my name. I was not seen. Clearly, I'm still carrying a grudge and a hurt.  

Each one of us longs to be seen and to be visible.  Isolation and loneliness kills. There are a variety of reasons why persons hide and make do on the margins. I believe part of our work is to let others know we see them, they are visible to us, they matter.  It's why the theme song for the t.v. show CHEERS celebrated the bar as a place where "everyone knows your name."