‘[P]art of me believes when the story of earth is told, all that will be remembered is the truth we exchanged. The vulnerable moments.  The terrifying risk of love and the care we took to cultivate it.’*

Relationships are a tightrope experience.

I’m out here, trying not to fall to the right for inauthentic, nor the left as unprepared to change.

Then there’s the risk I take that at any moment you could shake the wire.

The truth is, I’m sometimes tempted to impress.  At other times, I know my soul is small and I refuse change.

Funny, I don’t want to be any of this.  I’m a work in progress.  I guess we all are.  I guess we are as a species.

‘I’m the kind of person who wants to present my most honest, authentic self to the world – so I hide backstage and rehearse honest and authentic lines until the curtain opens.*

What if our advancing technologies explain what we long for most: the hard work in labs, teamwork around a problem, laughter around lunchtime, having a drink in the pub before heading home – all the “stuff” around the technology is the stuff that counts?

We’ve come to a time Sherry Turkle’s names the robotic moment:

‘At the robotic moment, the performance of connection seems connection enough.’**

Check out the videos of Paro and Spot.  Our interactions with robots tell us everything about what it is to be Human and not what it feels like to be a robot.  (Remember the outrage from some at Spot being kicked?)

The same technology makes it possible to avoid one another – I can get more done if I message and text than if I phone someone – AND also to connect – a Facebook message in the morning confirms I can meet up with someone for a chat at the end of the day (I can fine-tune this with him through the day if necessary).

What if who we are most visible in our relationships?  I am more Geoffrey when I am with you than when I am on my own?   This is where things get messy.  You’ll definitely see my mess if I really turn up, if I manage to stay on the tightrope.

But it’s on the tightrope where I find hope.

(*From Donald Miller’s Scary Close.  When the history of our time is written, it won’t be about the fiscal dexterity of the British Government which catches the attention, but our recognition of and compassion towards those caught up in potentially the greatest Human migration for half a century.)
(**From Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together.)