Is Genesis 2:18 true? After all that the Lord God had made He came to the conclusion that He had not done His best. God had made the heavens, the earth, the seas and dry land. He had made plants and all kinds of sea creatures and finally, He created man. A remarkable feat of creation when one considers the complexity of our cardio vascular system, our ability to see, and the ability of our muscles to move us and allow us to get from place to place. Add to that our mental capabilities and we are, indeed, a marvel. Yet for all this God said, "It is not good". What could possibly qualify as "not good" in the midst of all that? Oh, it is "not good for man to be alone". We were designed to be social beings. Just give a thought to the nervous system so sensitive that you to feel a stray hair tickle your arm. We were designed to touch, to feel, to know the warmth of another human being that cares for us.
Just how important is this function of touch and tender connection? Well, as my mind has been wandering back to the early days of my education, Harry Harlow, wandered into the grey matter. Harlow is best known for his social or psychological studies using rhesus monkeys. The experiment was pretty simple. He took baby monkeys and placed them in cages with wire mom monkeys with bottles attached and other monkeys in cages with fuzzy mom monkeys with bottles attached. The wire mom babies did not fare well. In fact many died or developed severe behavioral problems. Not so with the fuzzy moms. Their baby monkeys grew up, for the most part, healthy and normal. Harlow tested the monkeys further by putting in both a wire mom monkey with the bottle and the fuzzy mom with no bottle at all. The baby monkeys would leave the fuzzy mom, nurse from the wire mom and then scurry back to cuddle with the fuzzy mom. His conclusion was that warm, nurturing, touch was essential for proper development. He discovered that it was not good for baby monkeys to feel alone.
What is true for rhesus monkeys is true for human beings as well. We do not do well in isolation. We need family, we need community, we need one another. It is not good for us to be alone. The touch of another human being is vital to our well being. It has been God's plan for human beings to function as a community. The Scriptures are filled with phrases that contain the words, "one another". When prisoners are put into solitary confinement or isolation it is not a reward. Children placed in mass wards in orphanages, with little human contact, do not develop well. Many do not survive. We were not created for perpetual "social distancing". We were designed for community and comforting touch.
God recognizes the need to isolate those who carry a potentially deadly disease. Leviticus 13 gives instructions to isolate someone with possible leprosy to protect the community. Quarantine for contagious members of the community was not just allowed, but necessary. However, we are now told that everyone is a potential threat. Everyone must isolate. No one should have contact with another. The message of fear has replaced the need for social interaction. We are told it is not just dangerous but life threatening to get within six feet of another human. We are told to lock ourselves away and avoid other people, even family members. Even though much research shows that the threat is not what it has been. The death rate has plummeted and the recovery rate is very high. Still the fear mongers tell us to stay alone, to avoid others, to enjoy our solitary confinement. It is for our own good. If we disagree, rules are declared to force us to comply.
There are a consequences to this mandated isolation that do not get much publicity. Throughout the United States thousands of seniors have been isolated in nursing homes and assisted living centers. Some have been denied the opportunity to be taken to the homes of their children or grand children. No, for their own protection they are locked away from human companionship, the touch of a child's hand or the embrace of a loved one. Not for days but for months. In New York alone, thousands have been isolated to die alone. Some from a virus, some from loneliness. Some, who enjoyed the simple things of life have given up in isolation. Now, depressed, they just wait to die. No fuzzy monkey available to bring some comfort or warm touch. Isolation breeds death.
The other neglected group are the recovering addicts and mentally ill who need both accountability and comfort. I personally know of those who, laid off from work, isolated at home, not able to be with friends, have returned to the comfort of drugs, both prescription and illegal. That toll in destruction and death will likely never be measured. I wrote a post a few weeks ago, "Which Spirit" reminding us that there is a spirit who desires to, "rob, kill, and destroy". That spirit thrives in the isolated lives of the vulnerable. His quiet voice calls the addict to his drugs, the depressed to their pills, those who suffer from a variety of emotional challenges and Post Traumatic Stress, to just yield to the battle and end their lives. So they do. All alone in their quiet apartment cages, longing for the touch of someone to talk them out of the pressure they feel to end the pain. However, no friend can come. No brother or sister can comfort. For they too are isolated in their own government mandated isolation chamber homes. So they die alone, protected from the deadly virus.
Our nation, if not the world, has become an enormous laboratory experiment. "Let us see how large segments of population deal with extended isolation." "Let us see how much fear we can instill to keep the experiment going." I am not suggesting there is no threat or that the vulnerable ignore reasonable precautions, however, social science and the Word of God tell us that there will be consequences for the ongoing isolation and fear. When we violate God's design to replace them with man's edicts of "safety" there will be a price to pay. Our oldest generation has become the victim of fear and isolation. Others that government sets out to "protect" are left with wire monkey moms and no comfort as they spiral into the darkness of their own personal pain. But,we know, not all the monkeys are expected to survive the experiment. There is always an acceptable cost when we run the tests and evaluate the process. Not to sound cynical, but have you noticed the government folks, like those in white lab coats, still travel, still wander about talking to folks, still have their social calendars. Perhaps for them, they know that it is not good for man to be alone. That is just for the little monkeys. But, you know, it's for their protection.
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