Wanna Hangout?

Everybody likes to hang out. Well, almost everybody. I suppose there are a few people who don’t enjoy hanging out. Just being with friends or loved ones with no particular agenda except enjoying each other’s presence may seem like a waste of time to some, but I believe it is vital to human well-being.

Christians call it “fellowship”. Many families have a “family night” or a “reunion”. A group of friends may call it a “cookout” or a “party”. To a sports fan it’s “Tailgating”. Whatever it’s name, people need to spend time with each other just “being”. This is part of how we develop a sense of belonging. It helps us feel “connected”.

So how can you build connection with a group of people who are far away and in different places? Way back in primitive times, before the internet, somebody invented circle letters. Everyone in the circle wrote about what their family was experiencing then sent it to the next person in the circle. When the envelope came back around they could read what was happening in the lives of all the others in the circle, update their own letter, and send it on.   It was great for the time, but limited in effectiveness. Then came Facebook. This is an improvement over the circle letter because it allows a nearly instant connection. If a group of friends wants , they can write short “letters” to each other that can be read and responded to instantly. And more than one person can respond at the same time. This is wonderful for helping to build connection but it is limited to text based communication.

Enter Google +. This wonderful invention by the people at Google Inc. allows up to nine people to interact with each other over long distances like never before! Google + Hangout allows my wife and me, who live in Indiana, to vist with my brother and his family in FL, Mom and Dad in GA,  and my two sisters, who live in different cities in SC! It is indeed wonderful! At Thanksgiving this past year we decided to designate Tuesday evening as “hangout night” for our family. I’m so glad we did! Even though we are separated by hundreds and hundreds of miles, our weekly visits are bringing us together  in a way that letters and phone calls never could. A “hangout” is the next best thing to actually being together.