Communication shrinks planet, expands anxiety

I think they're part of the lyrics to an old Supreme's ­- or is it Martha and the Vandellas - song: "no where to run to, no where to hide -"

In one of those strange quirks of fate, one of my favorite radio stations played this tune right after a newscast detailing the latest from the Middle East.

There was a time when there seemed to be a place to run, to hide, from the rest of the world. Before World War I, it was common wisdom that our nation's geography and its vast resources provided the means by which we could isolate ourselves from the turmoil that so often characterized the rest of the planet.

And the absence of today's almost instantaneous communication meant that we did not even have to know what was going on "over there" if we chose not to.

That's all changed.

Civil wars in Africa, earthquakes in the Caribbean and South America, political tensions in Eastern Europe, a war in the Middle East, a terrorist attack in Europe - it all affects us.

Some of this impact is direct. The price of food goes up, U.S. citizens abroad are in jeopardy, U.S. soldiers die, and an American company loses business.

Some of it is more subtle. We live not only with the day-to-day anxiety of our own lives, but a general anxiety about the world in general.

And it's not only us.

My grandchildren are learning much sooner than I'd like about just how changeable, how insecure, how frightening things can be. And certainly this general anxiety permeates our families as a whole, our marriages and our friendships.

And there is no where to run, no where to hide. We can no longer maintain the myth, as previous generations did, that we are "Fortress America," a nation that can go it alone. It has become a very small planet.

I'm hardly a historian or political scientist. But I do know about people and their relationships. And I believe it is important we are all aware of this additional stress and strain we carry as "citizens of the world."

We may sometimes be able to do very little about the problems that face our planet, but we can control how we deal with the anxiety we feel in response to them.

Expressing such anxiety constructively - thinking about it, talking about it - is going to be a lot better than trying to ignore it and subsequently acting it out destructively in our individual lives or in our relationships.

• The Rev. Ken Potts' new book, "Mix, Don't Blend: A Guide to Dating, Engagement, and Remarriage with Children," is available through book retailers.