This image was posted to a family WhatsApp, its a cute joke. It would fall right under the #firstworldproblems hashtag. After all, we’re not living under the threat of war, and most aren’t going hungry at night. But then it dawned on me that these three symbols speak of three types of issues that many of us face all the time, they are indeed contemporary and relevant, and they can be deeply frustrating. These are 3 of the Biggest Fears of Our Generation, and it is our struggle and challenge to deal with these fears, confront and overcome, or get past them to the extent we can.
(1) Weak Connectivity isn’t just about Wifi. Think about spouses who struggle with weak connectivity in their relationship, or parents who have issues relating to their children. Or those waiting to find that special someone to connect with. Or people who feel alone and unconnected to community. Connection, or the lack of it, is a huge issue in our lives today.
(2) Yes, that buffering symbol is annoying, waiting for it to finally load so you can get on with it. But beyond YouTube or a stubborn website, it can symbolize our frustration in working hard and not seeing the fruits of our labors. Getting half a story, and not seeing the full picture. Seeing the full picture explains so many things, it gives us perspective, understanding and meaning. Not being able to get to that can be very frustrating.
(3) Low Battery is not only a smartphone problem. It symbolizes the stress of limited resources, not enough money or time to do what you want to do in life, or lack of health or strength keeping you back. The worry about not having enough of what we need affects young people in the workforce or looking to get into it, older retirees, and families with young children. It’s even a problem for the government. We want to do and accomplish so much, but need the resources to be able to do it.
But as we know, there are ways to deal with these issues. The fears may be real but they ought not to debilitate us, and scare us to inaction. We find ways to get WiFi (and as Tanya keeps pointing out, the whole world is full of G-d’s glory), we can seek and get some sense of the full picture, and we have tools to either charge our batteries or reduce the strain on it, and make do with less. And as Rabbi Eliezer told his young son (later to be known as the Baal Shem Tov) before his passing : “Fear Not!”