I saw a video yesterday that was explaining a movie. The explanation tried to say that the protagonist was connected to the world. She was a pop star who could command audiences to experience her music with her. She could connect with millions of fans on social media. She was truly connected to the world. The video made that seem like a good thing. At the same time, the movie presented a villain that wasn’t connected to the rest of the world. When everyone was holding up their phones at a concert enjoying the concert experience he wasn’t. The video made it seem like this disconnection was a bad thing.
What really bothers me about this video is that I identify more with the villain who is disconnected than the connected pop star. That doesn’t make me a bad person.
The performer who is up on stage with a stadium of fans watching their performance may have a connection to the audience, but it is a superficial connection. No one in the audience really knows the performer and to the performer the audience is just a sea of faces. They don’t know any one of the individuals in that audience. It is the same with social media. The performer may have millions of followers, but they don’t really know anything about any of those followers. It is literally a superficial connection. In my own life, I never wanted to have superficial connections. I never wanted to do what everyone else in a crowd was doing just to feel a sense of belonging that didn’t really mean much to me. It would just be a fleeting feeling for a moment and none of those people would ever care about it ever again. That feeling of belonging never gave me anything that was lasting so I never felt like I needed it.
So, then I turn my focus to the villain. Some people don’t feel any connection to other people. They can’t empathize and they treat other people like pawns on a chess board. These people are scary and embody what I think evil is like. I, however, feel empathy for other people and more than that. I feel empathy for all living things. I even take it a step to the outrageous and feel empathy for inanimate objects. I don’t know why I do it. I guess I always had an intuition that everything has an energy to it. There’s some feeling behind that energy even if the object isn’t alive. I’m sure some people would think I am crazy and other people would understand. Here’s the thing: my empathy and my ability to feel this energy has led me to understand that I am one with the universe and the universe is one with me. I know that I am a part of everything and that there’s really no reason to be afraid because God will somehow bring me from the place or state where I felt completely at one with everything to being human and then back again. I don’t know it happens, but I know He will do it because I have faith. This knowledge that I am a part of everything is so much deeper than the superficial social media connection. It just can’t compare.
Every day, I find myself wanting to be a better person for God. I want to be a loving, patient, kind, and understanding person because when I find myself part of the universe again, I want the best parts of me to be there. I want to put forth love, not hate. I want to put forth faith, not doubt. I want to have God’s peace in my heart.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
