Five Minute Friday :: Ignore

There's something you can do about it.
Meet somebody halfway.
To communicate is the beginning of understanding.
• Five Minute Friday :: Ignore Linkup

Ignore reminded me of a group of old AT&T ads I've previously mentioned in blogs and also illustrated. My header design is one of my interpretations, recolored because I wanted the words to be gentle, easy, and inviting.

It's easy to ignore… someone who annoys you. A person who has wronged you. A project you need to finish as soon as possible (super relevant to me as a freelancer). To ignore that friend you need to forgive or maybe ask for forgiveness.

Though it happens everywhere, here in Los Angeles as twenty-first century urban cliff dwellers it has become more than the line of least resistance for us to ignore people around us. With the realistic fear the recent cascade of public violence has caused, with stay 2 meters-6 feet apart remaining wise counsel because #CovidIsAirborne and #CovidIsNotOver despite no longer qualifying as a pandemic, ignoring our neighbors to the extent of literal no-contact-zero communication may protect me, my family, and my interests.

But what happens if you don't ignore? What happens if you reach out, connect, make a new friend, reconcile with an old friend? (What happens if you settle down and finish that project so you can get paid?)

Here's a partial list from the AT&T ads:

• At least talk to each other!
• Divisions evolve from the barriers we construct
• Out of a sense of self, a sense of the other
• Reach out for someone

I can't know myself other than as I relate to another. I cannot ignore you. Side by side or face to face, I need to meet you. When you are not there I have no mirror. I have no choice but to be attentive, because God formed me for community, has called me into communities of humans, of creation and of the church. God charges me to live as other to my other. Ignorant is the adjective that comes from the verb ignore. "Out of a sense of self, a sense of the other."

Pastor James Howell, whose blog I follow to help prepare for my weekly scripture reflection recently observed about Joseph's reunion with his family:

I cannot imagine why a preacher would forego the Old Testament lection for this Sunday – ever, but especially now, given the severe splintering we're experiencing in society, and in the church. Genesis 45 is the theological high water mark of the Old Testament, and is a peer of even the best the New Testament has to offer. Reconciliation should be the fixed point in all our thinking, imagination, labor, and prayers.

Reconciliation should be the fixed point in all our thinking, imagination, labor, and prayers. Please don't be ignorant! Please don't ignore me!