Relatable

Being human has never been about being cool; it's been about being...

Relatable. 

We were formed to be in relationship with one another, and we are not at our fullest until we are connected. And we are not connected until we recognize that we're sharing the same basic human experience. 

This is why we're in what some experts are calling a "loneliness epidemic." Self-reported feelings of loneliness are at an all-time high...at least since we started keeping track of things like how many persons are self-reporting feeling lonely. 

And it's because these curated lives are not lives that we can connect to. I mean, it's cool to look at a bunch of pictures of beaches and mountains and foreign places, but if you can't afford a vacation or have responsibilities or disabilities that keep you from getting away, it's not a life you can live. It's neat as an idea, but it's not meaningful. 

And there it is...meaningfulness.

Stuff becomes meaningful when it applies to our lives, and it applies to our lives when we're connected to things and to other people, and we're connected to things and to other people when we are honest about the human experiences that we're having. 

Not our highlight reels. 

See, we look around at what our friends are posting or what our family is posting or what our community is posting and for whatever reasons, big or small, we know that's not going to be us. We're infertile - that baby is never going to be ours. We're uneducated - that corner office is never going to be ours. We're drowning in debt - that new car is never going to be ours. We're disabled - that adventure is never going to be ours. And it doesn't take long before we feel like we're living in a world totally different from the one everyone else is living in. 

And it all blurs together. It's not like we're looking over here thinking everyone else is living in their own little world. No, we're looking around and thinking everyone else is living in one great, big world, and we're the only one stuck in our own little world - a world filled with laundry and bills and commutes and all the things that make a life mundane. And...isn't there anyone who knows this life? Isn't there anyone who can make this kind of life beautiful? 

Of course, we're all actually living that life. We're just not talking about it. And because we're not talking about it, we're creating those feelings of loneliness in others...and ourselves. It's a lot of pressure to try to live up to the images that we're curating. When you're staring at your fourth pile of laundry that still needs to be folded and everyone else is looking at your picture perfect family at the beach, who do you reach out to when you need someone? You can't...it will shatter the image you've created. 

So we're all living in our own little bubbles in which we think we're the only ones, but the one thing that actually connects us is that most of our bubbles are actually the same. They're full of the same stuff - the same regular, daily, human stuff that we desperately need to know that we share. 

Only then can we look at each other's walls and truly say, "It's so cool in here! This space is so you!" Because when we have that common foundation, it's okay for you to be you - I don't feel jealous about that. You're really just like me. 

But if you're not just like me, now we both have a problem....