People need people. We connect with one another as family and friends, through the communities within which we live, in our workplaces, across support networks that stretch beyond our geographic location, and in many other ways that — whether we intend them to or not — help fulfill our fundamental human need to socialize and interact. All these encounters, big and small, add up and reflect an individual’s level of connection with the world — a vital ingredient in developing and maintaining overall health and well-being. This connection is a social imperative that we, both individually and as communities, have come to overlook far too often.
