Portraits are windows offering another way to "see" each other. If there is anything unusual about this self portrait it is that the subject is not smiling the way adults typically do when aware their picture is being made.

   The half-shadowed, serious face suggests something. But, your experience of it depends on you. 

   Although there are four physical dimensions we typically experience the world in three. We even think of three dimensions as the "real" world.

   What is happening to our relationships during the current widespread isolation? 

   When I FaceTime my grandchildren, quarantined in Italy, I have the illusion of a three dimensional encounter. I see & hear them. But, the experience remains two dimensional. I cannot hug them as full physical beings. 

   Yes. There is a much more to encounters than physical presence. I may experience greater depth in a letter than in a direct encounter.

   Yet, our isolation behind screens is worrisome. The phenomenon was in full sway before the pandemic struck & will continue afterwards. 

   Does this widening phenomenon of two-dimensional encounters threaten our humanity?

   Electronic devices fascinate. Why do we obsessively engage our cell phones? We have much more control that world than the one beyond it!

   Does electronic communication subconsciously convert the other being into an abstraction? Does it make it easier for soldiers to launch missiles that kill thousands? After all those are not people just a group of pixels on a screen?  

   What happens to compassion when we fall ill & our caregivers know us only as electronic images that can be turned off & on like a television?

-Erie Chapman