Tokens from the children occupy the space alongside my medicines, with a soothing phone call from Mom and supportive conversation with Emily perfuming the air.
I’m struck by the nature of each item in this first-aid kit for the soul, its relationship with time and place:
| Domestic | Foreign | Global | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contemporary | Ondem, Flox-OZ, Crocin | Hand-written card, Band-Aid, home-cooked meal | Texts, chats | Airshield, Aleve, Centrum | Emails, FB posts | Azithromycin, Loratadine, Malarone | Disney’s Princess and the Frog merchandise |
| Dated | House call | Rickety toaster | Phone call (many hours after today’s events, still hours earlier back home) | Dettol soap carving of hieroglyph | Kellogg’s Corn Flakes |
| Timeless | Illness | Love | Illness | Love | Illness | Love |
Basically, people are people and it’s all about feeling our best, inside and out. But such a confluence of supplies as I’ve itemized above is singular, I think, to this multinational moment…
Some people worry about the displacing potential of technology — geeking out on the Internet may remove us from face-to-face interactions, plugging into personal experiences in public spaces* may degrade our ambient awareness. I wonder, though, about the simultaneous potential of these domestic, foreign, global, contemporary, dated, and timeless collisions to deliver the best of what humanity has to offer. Choose your time, choose your place! Benefit from the offerings of our diverse/homogeneous peers!
As I consume comfort from every possible portal, I feel part of a complex, caring community. And this makes me one lucky lady indeed… despite the rash I just discovered.
*e.g., conversing via cell phone as we stroll or wait in line, music-listening via ear phones as we study or commute