Let’s Go a Little Retro

Hello Kind Heart,

I’ve been thinking a lot about CONNECTION recently. It’s a central theme of the book I’m working on.

Even as our devices make it easy to video-chat with family members on the other side of the globe and make new “friends” online, as a culture we are suffering. The US has an epidemic of loneliness, with serious physical health consequences. And what are all these mass shootings, if not desperate displays of disconnection?

Studies show that even small interactions with strangers, like your barista or the grocery store cashier, can foster feelings of connectedness. So I’m puzzled when faced with QR codes at a restaurant table, signaling me to use my phone to order instead of talking to a human. (I was hoping those would fade away with Covid, but they seem to be spreading like a virus instead. This week we used QR codes at the plant shop to get info on growing conditions. 🤔)

Self-check-out lines are proliferating at our local supermarkets, too.

I understand the value of letting customers speed through and get on with their day or their dinner or their garden, but we’re losing a part of ourselves in the race toward efficiency.

My message is simple today, but vital to the well-being of humanity: Find more ways to connect. We know how to do this, because it’s how we lived our lives before we got so technologically enmeshed.

✨ Smile at the person you pass on the sidewalk.
✨ Choose the old-fashioned line so a clerk can ask how your day has been.
✨ Strike up a conversation with the person waiting next to you, rather than checking your phone.
✨ Reach out to a friend you haven’t spoken with in a while, maybe by hand-writing a letter. 😮
✨ (Your ideas here: _________________________________________)

I’m starting each of my art classes by giving students a simple conversation prompt to get them chatting with each other in small groups or pairs. It makes all the difference in lowering creative anxiety and fostering a sense of belonging. Part of my capitalist, time-is-money brain nags at me to just get on with the business of what they signed up for. But I’ve realized something:

We are a social species. Connecting with each other is what we signed up for.

Your own life may be socially fulfilling already, but any small effort you make could help someone else feel less alone. It’s like doing mini doses of volunteer work in your community. 🤓

Let’s go a little retro with each other, for the health of us all.

With love from the slow lane,
- Pam

P.S. If you want a peek inside the book project I mentioned, I read a section of it in the most recent episode of the Accidental Muralist Podcast. Stay tuned for more bits and pieces in coming months.

P.P.S. The image above is from a collage painting I made a few years back. For info on this or other artwork for sale (here comes Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations, and wedding season!), email me or browse my online shop.