Today is RUOK Day?
The concept is you use this day to ask people in your world: Are they Ok?
Whilst I fundamentally support the concept of greater mental health support and even asking the question, I think that to get a genuine answer and therefore the RUOK concept to be worth while, time and effort has to be invested into developing a relationship with the person BEFORE asking the question.
I read through a lot of comments to people posting on Facebook…RUOK? and not one of them had any level of seriousness. Now I understand Social Media is not the place to ask that question, but I think rather than having a specific day where we suddenly act like we care, why don’t we put down our digital devices and start paying attention to the people around us. The office receptionist, the bus driver, a work colleague, a neighbour, a sibling….Let’s invest time into the people who are in our world and out of those relationships, we will hopefully notice when they are not ok.
Again, I am not against the concept of RUOK Day? I am just wondering if we are trying to microwave the intimacy in our relationships by a nice little quaint saying, when in reality nothing will take the place of genuine connection, friendship and concern, developed over a decent period of time of walking together in life. Reality is there are probably four people in my entire world who I would be totally honest to, if I was not Ok. And each one of those four people have been long term relationships.
We are all so hyper connected these days with our devices, but loneliness and isolation is skyrocketing.
Maybe we should have Turn Off Your Phone Day or Make a Friend Day, or Be a Friend Day, or Notice Your Long term Friends Day.
Anyway…That’s what I think.
Categories: Australian, Current Affairs, Kindness
peterpilt 
“Reality is there are probably four people in my entire world who I would be totally honest to, if I was not Ok”
Agree. I’m rarely honest when people ask if I’m OK. It is a trust thing.