In his article "Knowing loneliness," the Reverend J. A. Davidson is onto something. Speaking of "what the Bible calls love, the active caring for and caring about the needs and sufferings of others," he says, "We alleviate our own loneliness as, lovingly, caringly, we help alleviate the loneliness of others." (See excerpts from Rev. Mr. Davidson's article in the column that accompanies this editorial.)
Even a simple act of kindness can serve to restore one's sense of worth as an individual and of connectedness with others. And you never know what it might do for the other person. An account I read in a newspaper article years ago has stayed with me as a potent reminder of the difference unselfed love can make in the life of another. The author had been saved from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco when a pedestrian had remarked casually in passing, "I like your hiking boots."
It is not by accident that our own feelings of loneliness are assuaged by turning away from personal interests and concerns to care lovingly for and about the welfare of others. It has to do with the law of God, the divine Science of being—the fact that we actually were created to reflect divine Love, not to absorb it.
