A few hours after we left last week’s CoH gathering in St. Louis, one of the participants e-mailed this reflection from Union Station: “We had an amazing time together. It stripped the plaque off my nerve endings.” What a great description of what happens when we come together.

“The evolution of a complex nervous system,” notes Wikipedia, “makes it possible for…complex social interactions…transmission of culture, and many other outcomes of human society.” When the connections are working, we thrive. But when these connections are disrupted, as through trauma or prolonged social isolation, we suffer.

“Humans have a need to be affirmed up close and personal…a need for a wider circle of friends and family…a need to feel that we belong to a larger group,” says University of Chicago neuroscientist John Cacioppo, coauthor of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. And when we don’t experience these connections? “Loneliness shows up in measurements of stress hormones, immune function, and cardiovascular function. Lonely adults consume more alcohol and get less exercise…their diet is higher in fat, their sleep is less efficient, and they report more daytime fatigue. Loneliness also disrupts the regulation of cellular processes deep within the body, predisposing us to premature aging.”

Coming together to consider the health of the community is healthy community. As shared in the e-mail from Union Station, “This city is just surging through me right now, like one those trains that roared into this station so many years ago. Nothing could be better! Thank you, thank you, thank you.”