What's Your Human Connection Ritual?

“Now, each of us has his own special gift, and you know this was meant to be true, and if you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you.” Bob Dylan

Human connection rituals

That’s me in the pic, of course, and my best mate Gregor. Gregor is a quality human. Gregor and I met when we were 10. We went to High School and Teachers College together.

We share a passion for Bob Dylan. One of the ‘things’ that Gregor and I do to stay connected is to randomly send one another a line from a Dylan song, with the expectation that the other responds with the very next line in that song (without recourse to Google Lyrics).

Our Dylan lyrics ‘thing’ is what I like to call ‘a human connection ritual’. Rituals don’t have to be grand and mighty, they don’t have to be religious or spiritual. They can be of course, but rituals can also be simple. They can be regular or they can be infrequent. A ritual might be a bit quirky, but for us humans that doesn’t matter.

What matters is that we connect in some meaningful, purposeful, and maybe sometimes even provocative, human way.

Gregor and I speak quite regularly, and we see each other now and then. When we do catch up it always feels like we saw each other just the day prior. You humans know that feeling right? You likely have your own version of ‘Gregor’ in your life.

You know the one. You are connected on some deeper level. You have history or herstory (or both) together. You tell each other exactly what needs to be said, and you listen to what needs to be heard. It can be raw at times but it’s always human. You are kindred spirits. Let’s use the L word here too eh? You Love one another.

My Gregor has his own special gifts, he tells me I do too. As Dylan urges in ‘Dear Landlord’, I don’t underestimate Gregor and he doesn’t underestimate me. We challenge one another for certain, but we don’t underestimate.

So fellow humans here’s a thought on what you might do after reading my Musing. Spend a little time reflecting on who your ‘Gregor/s’ are, or were. Who is that person in your life that you haven’t spoken to or connected with for a while? Who is it that you knew so well that you shared a ritual with, once upon a time, that you can dust off and use to reconnect?

Got your ‘Gregor’ in full view? Off you go then human and connect. Call, email, sms, whatsapp, messenger, or whatever medium you choose. The method doesn’t matter, it’s the connection, and the ritual that does.

If you come up short on a ritual or what to say, pull out a random quote from a Bob Dylan song and send it to your ‘Gregor’. I reckon you are guaranteed to at least get a ‘WTF?’ in reply.

And there you go, reconnected, and with a new ritual. You’re welcome.