Since the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, I've been more aware of a distinct connection between two different longings—the longing for community, and the longing for communion with a higher power.
I began to think about the connection when I got my hair cut a few days after the attacks. I expected Barbara, the owner of "Hair Heaven," to tell me that business had been slow that week. But she said she'd been swamped with customers. "People want to talk with someone," she said. "They want to be touched."
Could that desire for community be a metaphor for the desire for communion, I wondered? To touch and be touched by the divine? In my own life I've noticed that when I've really worked at getting closer to what I consider to be God, the result has often been that I've connected better with those around me—sometimes in unexpected ways.
