Looking to the horizon, it was clear that the sun, the lord of the day, was letting the moon to take command.
At first just one, then another, the neighbors were starting to bring their chairs to the front of their homes, looking for a pleasant end of the day conversation.
While the adults talked about the most various issues, the children played in the street.
It was as if in that community everyone was part of the same family.
However, it happened that one day one of the neighbors came home carrying a big cardboard box.
At nightfall, as usual, everyone got together in the pavement for a couple of more hours of chatting.
That was when someone, expressing the general curiosity, asked the neighbor about the content in the mysterious package.
He revealed that, after a lot of savings, his family had bought a TV. They were anxiously waiting for the next day, when a technician would come to install it correctly.
The whole neighborhood was admired. That would be the first television to arrive in that street.
The days went by and that neighbor, as well as his family, started to show less and less for the joyful afternoon talk among friends.
At first, they would come every other day. Afterwards, just once a week. Then, once or twice a month. And, finally, they stopped showing.
While everyone talked happily, they contemplated through the windows the family of the missed neighbor who sat with his family in front of the shining screen.
And time went by. Soon, another neighbor showed with a big cardboard box. And then another. And even one more.
Gradually, the late night talk was having fewer people, shortening until it disappeared completely.
Now the neighbors saw each other very little. At night, they sat in front of the TVs, absorbed by the shows, slumped in a limitless distance.
* * *
Decades have gone by, but the sad situations still stands.
Today, even though we are living in the internet era and through it we have a lot of possibilities to communicate with each other; we have never been so isolated.
The numbers of those who feel alone have never been so high, even counting with hundreds of social networks friends.
Against loneliness and isolation, the eternal teaching of the Master: Love God above all things and thy neighbor as yourself.
Let’s exchange once in a while, the cold touch of the computers´mouses by the warm touch a friendly hand. The frenetic tipping for the venturous moments of a pleasant talk.
Instead of chatting in websites, a going to the park, a casual dinner with friends, enjoyable moments
The big lesson that we all have upfront of the opportunity to reincarnate is to learn how to love.
And such lesson is only achieved in the relation with others: in the gestures of charity and forgiveness, in the words said in a moment of tenderness.
When we finally leave a little aside the comfort and practicality of the virtual life and fully live what makes us real and human: the capability to love.
Let’s think about that!
Spiritist Moment Team
September 19,2017.