I really enjoyed one of the Netflix (and BBC) series called Call the Midwife. It portrays the life of London‘s poorer, working-class district of Poplar in the 1950s. I find myself connecting to many of the episodes and reality portrayed in the series because it is very similar to how I grew up in Viet Nam back in the 1980s. Of course, there were some political motives and agendas interwoven in the narrative, but it portrays a beautiful and simple reality of what it means to be a society with real social fabric and interaction. It highlights how much we have accomplished in such a short time through social betterment and medical advances, but it reminds us, too, how much we have lost in recent years as we have become more individualistic. Therefore, I would like to take a moment to reflect on how we were when the social fabric was strong and where we are going in this trajectory. It is an invitation to challenge ourselves to not lose sight of what really makes us humans and as a society who truly cares for one another.
First, please let me say that we have to be careful with nostalgia. Things were not all perfect and dandy in the past because real problems were often not addressed, pushed under the rug, and ignored for a long time. We have come a long way from many of those unaddressed issues and learned from many of those matters. Perhaps we looked at the world differently when we were young or thought that somehow it was better than the current time, but we also learn that each age has its own problems. Nonetheless, when we struggled and had less as a society, we learned to depend on each other because we knew that we could not make it through life alone. One of the blessings I have learned from my past is that our social fabric is stronger when people choose to be kind to one another. They might not be perfect, but they were there in times of need because we were grateful for having and being neighbors.
We are living in a day and age where communication and technological advances have helped us to get more connected with each other, and that is in itself a great blessing! We have more means to be in touch with one another, and all these social media outlets or options have made our world less distanced and closer to each other with just simple clicks on the computer, tablet, or phone. However, it has perhaps created its own unhealthy co-dependency because many people, especially our younger generations, have become addicted and dependent on these social media means to seek shallow and destructive satisfaction, self-worth, and fleeting pleasures. They have allowed what other people think they need to be, worrying and preoccupying a lot of their time, envious and jealous of others. They are trying so hard to present or define themselves in different ways to stand out, be accepted, and be worthy of others’ behind-the-screen likes, followers, friends, and clicks.
Furthermore, having immediate means to blast what one thinks allows people to say hurtful things to a larger audience at the push of a button. Since everything is now readily and immediately available, we can do or say whatever we want without giving it time and thought to truly compose ourselves. We have seen a rising class of behind-the-screen keyboard warriors who try to defend their stances and argue with others for little or no reason at all. In a day and age where we tend to think we are much better than in the past because we have more understanding, tolerance, respect, and empathy, we begin to see a rising lack of true care and love for one’s self and our neighbors. These sentiments begin behind the screen. We have lost the simple way of communicating by listening and speaking to each other from the heart, as human beings with our genuine humanity, and simply as neighbors or brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
We might feel pity or sorry for people or even somewhat empathize with them, but we often leave people where they are to focus on our particular livelihood and goals. Poverty is real in America, but we have not seen a widespread level of poverty here where it becomes a detrimental part of the communal and social ethos. On top of that, our current first-world, western society lacks the communal identity and fabric it once had as the instant gratification, consumeristic, technological, and social media advances made us into a selfie generation that tends to focus on the individualistic selves, benefits, and needs. As we isolate ourselves from the world and do not see the big, worldwide picture of what actually goes on, we become more anxious and worried when things do not go our particular way.
From the young to the elderly, there is a sense of powerlessness and fear to live with our true God-given and human dignity because we have been so objectified, manipulated, or distracted by the world. People simply give up hope because they do not feel loved, cared for, accepted, or embraced with true acceptance. While many of our government programs and initiatives are based on numbers, reports, and typical data, these calculative means do not capture the real picture of what is happening to the social fabric of our country. We are facing an identity crisis! Think about it… All these things happen because too many of us love to talk about political and social issues but do not know who we are deep from within. Our social fabric has been so torn that we have become more vocal on several political or unimportant matters but indifferent on many of the ones that really affect our people. We can be immediately shocked, angry, and stunned on social media through different expressions; but for the most part, we do not want to deal with them in personal and effective means that will bring real changes.
We have been showing ourselves as a more equal, just, caring, and compassionate society on the outside. We might be smiling, greeting, and acknowledging people in their everyday business but ignorant and not truly caring about how those around us face difficult problems. We have no problem “getting to know” our audience, population, and people as long as it serves a beneficial service, but that just means we have become a predatory, manipulative, and objectified society that only cares about its members when they serve a purpose. We ignore the inherent problems that they are going through because they do not benefit us and our social, business, enterprise, or political models. This is the best way to describe a fake, careless, cold, heartless, and indifferent society that makes everything sound nice on the outside but leaves its own members drowning and dying — only seeming to care when it is beneficial. We have a growing set of problems that need to be dealt with, but we ignore them by simply packaging things nicely on the outside. We ignore what is rotting us deep from within, which will only worsen us. We have something that is destroying us deep from within, but we do not like to humbly talk about it, only focusing on making things look nice exteriorly. Thus, this disease, like gangrene and cancers, is crippling and eating us alive from within as we see more rising numbers of death, addiction, depression, anxiety, and the likes that make us like the “walking dead” without joy and hope.
When crises hit here at home, we can see that our social fabric is so thin and fragile, easily torn apart and broken because we have not really known, cared for, or been mindful of our neighbors and others who are around us. Many people have only been faking it, looking and acting nice to one another at the grand party of life, but really do not know or care for each other in the daily journey. Everyone is busy looking their best, trying to manipulate the other to pervade a particular image, ideology, item, or thing but one could care less for those who are around them. I am sad to say this, but this is the classic definition of sophistry and pharisaical actions. In a sophist world, words mean nothing because they have no substance nor can give life; they only exist to sound nice, to attack or defend, or to pervade one’s desired messages. Our world is pharisaical, too, because what many have done was just for self-justification and praise. They simply use the law and faith for their own good and benefit instead of really giving testimony to the truth.
It is easy to say that we are doing something, can do this, or that when things go right and according to our ways; yet, it is often in times of trial and hardship, suffering and crisis that our true character is shown. Furthermore, our true character continues to be formed, and faith strengthens when life gets hard. It often takes a crisis for us to get back to what is basic, ordinary, and simply human by grounding ourselves in the extraordinary faith found in our relationship with God. With everything that is going on, we are uncomfortably reminded that society is not just built on politics, ideologies, and talks, but the true sacrifices of men and women of goodwill to strengthen relationships and will the good of our very own society. In times that seem to be filled with extraordinary measures, we are invited — first and foremost — to return to the most ordinary and basic human level that makes us who we are deep from within.
True characters are revealed when we are taken from our usual routines and comforts, especially when we can no longer hide behind nice-sounding words and shallow actions to have things our way. We are shown how we really are deep from within when we can no longer benefit from others and when things do not go our way. When shallow, casual, or ordinary exchanges, niceties, and usual human means cannot help with the game of manipulative, hedonistic, and benefit-based interactions, this is when true human characteristics and values are revealed. Even though his world has never been perfect with all its past and present challenges, it is worth loving, building, and allowing to be formed after God‘s own salvific, redemptive, and providential will. We must remember that each of us must go beyond words or empty actions to truly care, give ourselves genuinely and wholeheartedly, and serve one another in our genuine, Christ-centered, and down-to-earth humanity. Holiness and the opportunities to sanctify ourselves and our world are in the present moment, not as with something in the past or for the future alone. We can only take what is available and challenging at the present moment in order to discern God‘s will for us here. We cannot change and go back to the past or be in control of the future, but we can certainly transform, unite, and seek to offer up what is going on right now to the love of God and for the service of our neighbors.