Everyone says we need more connection. More community. More belonging.

But the opposite of loneliness isn't connection. It's being witnessed. Specifically: being witnessed in transition.

The reason traditional cultures wrapped every major life passage in ritual wasn't for the ceremony—it was so you didn't cross alone. Someone saw you before, and someone saw you after, and that seeing made the passage real.

We have more connection than ever. We have less witnessing. You can have a thousand followers and still grieve completely unseen.