The Connections We Have and the Ones We Need

Connections

In 1830 the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company opened up the first railroad in the US a mere 3 years after becoming an entity. By the 1860's the railway boom connected the nation and replaced canals as the major form of transportation. Not only that, but along the railroads and their stations we had the telegraph system providing nearly instant communication in live time across the nation. Small towns like this with grain elevators and corn and soybean were now connected to large cities. People could visit places they never thought possible and we were able to get goods to spaces that normally would not have access to certain foods, steel, and much more.

I recently read an article that tells us, despite even more connectivity and access, the divide between the rural community and the city are even more prevalent than it ever was and it is exhibited in how we are voting this year. 

Western Union and AT&T are no longer providing telegraph services, but they are still part of our communications infrastructure. Railways are no longer steam locomotives, but they still transport goods and people all over the nation. 

Add to that the telephone, highways, airlines, wireless communication and the internet and we are connected now  more than we were before, yet we have divides and fear and judge the other. 

Our connections are broken. The more connected we get, the more divided we seem to be. 

We hate and fear so readily, and yet, we need each other. 

How we better connect the human heart as well as we have connected our communications and transportation infrastructure will require connections of the heart. For thousands of years we have build ports, the roman roads, drawn maps, created aqueducts, canals, railroads, pony express, airplanes, highways, telegraphs, telephones, wireless, internet and I suspect things we could not have imagined are just around the corner. 

May we find innovation in connecting our hearts, our values and our humanity.