Change of Way, Change of Sense
“Ultimately, Communication is an achievement more human than technological.” (Franciscus PP)
We are called to deal with issues and take hard decisions. And we are called to live important changes in the way we relate to the others.
Each person who is used to directly communicate through the senses (looking and listening live, shaking hands, hugging) must reformulate his own way of being in relationship with other people.
The members of the families who build together their life and even the ones who experience conflicts and uncertainty about their future together; the friends who share emotions, confidences, decisions that make a difference; who works and receives meaning to his job from the relationship; all these people, all of us, after the first days we have been concentrated in our bubble of wait, we find ourselves redefining the way and meaning of staying together now.
The grandparents who observe their grandchildren from a distance and the grandchild who is close to his grandparents behind a surgical mask (as occurred to my son) use in a more intense way the few moments in which their relationship is concentrated.
We have started using in varied ways the tools of distance communication.
The video lessons, at least the first ones that the students and the professors share, are experienced with the same light and vibrant sense felt by those who meet after long time.
The chatrooms are not only a channel to share jokes and relieve the strain of these days in a superstitious way; they are a way for the old schoolmate to catch up to the mutual knowledge. It isn’t like when we meet in a pizzeria and talk about the way we were. It is saying and listening about more essential things that are happened in our life until now, sharing feelings of human weakness and inadequacy.
And so, those who need and are used to giving a wide sense to the way of relating with the others can experience a different manner of using the tools of distance communication, enriching the memory with new meanings of communication and feeling that go beyond what they sense during the most ordinary execution of their daily tasks.
