Cold Comfort

There was a time when you heard bad news, or when you had a friend who was going through a hard time, when you didn't have the words to comfort or to heal.. when all you could do was give them a hug, because there wasn't really anyway you could understand what they're going through.

We live now in a time when you don't spend face time with anyone anymore. The days of sitting on a park bench to talk, the days of curling up on the couch with a friend is long over. Now we pass along bad news via SMS, or instant messenger, or email. We have traded real human contact with convenience and instant gratification. So that when you don't have the words, you can't reach over and squeeze a hand in comfort, or hold someone in tears, or even give someone quiet comfort by simply being there.

Today's medium of conversation forces a response, because silence via SMS speaks of being ignored or rejected. So we respond. We say words for the sake of having a response... and then we end up saying things like:

"Don't be so negative, it'll all work out, it always does."

"Keep your problems at home, work is work, home is home."

And when you scared, lost and hurting, receive those messages, you wonder why you ever opened your heart, if that is all the comfort you can expect to receive from the people closest to you.

So you make bricks out of the mud surrounding you, you rebuild and reinforce and retreat into isolation, because it is easier not to have friends, than to have friends who don't really care.