In: Travel, Well-Being
On Being Afraid
You are not alone if the big changes terrify you
5:00 pm, December 9th, 2021
It is a rainy night. The surface of the highway, visible through the gentle haze of rain outside of the bus window, glows faintly with the reflected red of a thousand brake lights. I am mostly alone. The other passengers on the bus, like me, are either absorbed in their cell phones or are staring listlessly at the road outside. Only one small blessing is staving off the silence of the evening — the comforting voices of some of my dearest friends are with me, via text, as I make my way towards the Mexican border.
SMS is a small miracle for the lonely traveler. The media makes a great hullaballoo about how emojis can’t substitute for human contact but, as is common for the media, they have missed out on some nuance. Really, it’s a matter of what you are comparing it to.
When your other option is to have a real-life friend in front of you, with laughter and handshakes and hugs and a shot of whiskey or three, text messages are a pale imitation of the real thing. The talking heads are right; far too many people give up on that for empty words on a screen.
