Living in an interconnected world is here to stay. One cannot claim ignorance any longer on some parts of the world with 24/7 cable networks visually reporting the recent news and images from around the globe. Couple this with Twitter updates, texts messages, and online updates: information is not our problem. Engagement with that information is another story. How does something like news impact us emotionally? Part of our emotional engagement comes when we actually allow ourselves to be immersed or exposed in a fresh way to people and their stories.

So, to become more emotionally connected rather than mere information collection, here are a few suggestions....

1) Read books written by foreign authors.....don't simply read a book by a Western author about a different part of the world, but truly read a book by someone who does not live here and who has written a book for people who don't live here. Spending hours and days, not sound bytes and minutes, will help with emotional engagement.

2) watch good foreign films....the Academy Awards have now come and gone, but immerse yourself in a story that is compelling and well done and doesn't rely on special effects and slick American marketing. The film from Argentina that just won the Oscar for best foreign language film is a good start. A story well told visually will engage you emotionally.

3) Start jotting down an emotional news list....what do I mean? I mean take note of the news stories that make you angry or sad or laugh or cry. Pay attention to what actually elicits in you a reaction. And then write down what your reaction was and over time reflect on that....your reaction may lead to some intentional action that may change something in your own life.

The writer and pastor Frederick Buechner ends one of his messages, entitled "What It Means to Grow Up" (full text here), with the following words--may they guide us as we seek to be engaged in an interconnected world at a deeper level:

 

"We are strangers to each other, you and I. Who knows how many miles apart as I stand at the lectern and you sit there watching your screens, but the sense we have of each other’s humanity even so, the feeling that one way or another we are all of us here — you in your living rooms and me at this lectern to give each other our love and God our love. This kind of moment itself is a door that holiness enters the world through. May it enter you! May it enter me! — to the world’s saving. Amen."

 -bo