Editorial July 5, 1982 Issue

Getting together

NATHAN A. TALBOT

If you were to rate life's high points, it's likely many of them would be times you've spent with others. If you were to rate the lows, again, chances are they would involve others. It seems people can bring immense happiness to us. Or just the opposite. The fact that relationships are often so volatile may indicate that most people have more yet to learn about what getting together really means.

Something more than just having mortals in the same place is needed to signal authentic togetherness. There's a way for family members to shrink what sometimes may seem like miles of emptiness between them (though occupying the same small apartment). A professor can drive home an important point to his political science class and reach a student who, although in the front row, is sometimes worlds away. Someone attending a funeral can overcome a feeling of separation from the person who has passed on.

A true sense of unity can be established in any of these situations as one discovers an answer to the question of what it actually means to be with another. The most accurate answer doesn't involve physics; it involves metaphysics. As we advance beyond the concept that man is matter—and understand that he is spiritual because he is the expression of God who is Spirit—we'll find a new and vastly better basis on which to plant our interaction with others. The key that determines a happy relationship is our sense of God—not merely the makeup of two mortal personalities.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Getting together

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access