“Only connect.” The short phrase was made famous by author E. M. Forster’s classic novel, “Howard’s End.” The phrase, however, could be the perfect epigram summing up the fragmentation of relationships in contemporary society. Like poles of magnets that first attract then repel. Like dancing bacteria under a microscope. We move through lives knowing and not-knowing one another. Revealing and hiding from each other. Perhaps more dangerous than the conscious unknowing that separates us, though, is the assumption that we do know when, in fact, we only see what we want to see or encounter only false selves. And for all the pain imbued in these rounds of hope and disappointment, there remains so much beauty, so much life and light. “Only connect” if only for awhile.