Welcome to the Connection Hub

As the calendar turned over from December to January, a meme repeatedly showed up in my doom-scrolling:

“The moment you realize 2022 is pronounced ‘2020 too’”....

The first time I saw it, I laughed out loud. And then I cried a little, too.

I’ve been holding onto the idea that if we can only get through this week, this month, this surge, this season, this whatever, then at some point this will be over. And then we’ll be able to get on with creating a new kind of normal. I’ve banked on the phrase “post-pandemic” more times than I care to admit.

But the truth is, I need to change my mindset. This isn’t something to get through, but rather, it’s something to learn to live with. Yes, my kids are back to wearing masks at the playground. And grocery store shelves are sparse again. The systems that sustain life are under strain, and as human beings, we are under strain, too. We’re frustrated, and sad, and struggling. More canceled plans. Fears of getting sick, again. Worrying about friends and loved ones. Unsure of what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to. The experience of living in this protracted reality is weighing on us, so much so that I have witnessed acts of unkindness I would have been shocked by 18 months ago. At the bus stop. In line at the coffee shop. At the dog park. We’re exhausted and our fuses are short. Perhaps it’s no surprise that new research shows Americans are struggling to care for others, especially across our differences. A wise friend recently asked,

“How will we move from this collective trauma to collective renewal?”

I always want the new year to be a time of aspirations and hope, but the year “2020 too” seems to be one in which we must doggedly resign ourselves to soldiering on, together. The persistent uncertainty of the world around us makes it that much more important for us to seek deeper levels of connection and understanding. Because, yes: being truly together – even in the muck of it – is the very thing that will help us feel a whole lot better.

Whatever it is you are feeling, someone else is too. If we step into that awareness fully, it becomes an invitation to reach out and find each other.

That is my hope for each of us. Let’s join Laysha Ward’s call to make this the year of “The Great ReConnection.” I hope you’ll use this as a reminder to reconnect with someone today, and every day. Perhaps you could invite a friend or relative to record an interview with you via StoryCorps Connect. A seemingly simple act with profound dividends. For you, for them, and for our collective culture and consciousness. Because we get to choose. Let’s choose one another.

In that vein, when we launched Einhorn Collaborative just over a year ago, we made a deeper commitment to more actively engage with our community. We started sending a monthly newsletter and publishing regular reflections on the progress and impact of our work. Since then, we’ve also solicited feedback: what's working well and what can we do better? We’ve taken that input to heart as we move into this new year.

In response, I’m excited to share our new Connection Hub, filled with resources, tools, and reflections to more easily find what you need to advance our shared goal of fostering deeper human connection in America. The Connection Hub is the place where you can more easily find content based on your area of interest, such as the three components of our strategy (Bonding, Bridging, and Building), or by author. You’ll also find long-form research that underpins our work in such areas as emotional connection and the bridge building field, alongside tools—like the one I suggested above— from our partners that will help you practice the very skills needed to infuse connection throughout all facets of your life. Additionally, we’ve aggregated the monthly suite of resources from across our peers and partners that was previously only contained in our regular newsletter so you can more easily access them.

We will continue to send our monthly newsletter, which will now aggregate all of the new content from the Hub, including reflections from our team and me, as well as a broader diversity of voices from across our collaborative efforts. We’re actively seeking to expand the perspectives we offer with guest contributions, both through syndicated content and exclusive reflections. So stay tuned!

Above all, we hope that in launching this new Hub, we’re able to offer you more interesting and engaging content from across our partners so you can bring their insights more easily into your work. We’d love to hear how you’re using it and what more you would want to see.

Our intent is that the Connection Hub becomes a place to return to for both inspiration and guidance, to help each of us live a more connection-filled life.

Visit The Connection Hub

Jenn Hoos Rothberg leads Einhorn Collaborative. You can learn more about our work here and more about Jenn here. Sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter and be the first to read Jenn’s posts.