Can America recover from the “loneliness epidemic” in which we increasingly find ourselves?

We all know that although we’re more connected than ever, we strangely feel more isolated as well. Researchers regularly note the skyrocketing number of lonely people, in fact, one study from 2021 found that the number of Americans who say they have no close friends increased by 400% since 1990.

I blame the loneliness epidemic on social media and our culture’s addiction to it. Life in a world where individuals are also brands makes us more focused on ourselves perhaps than ever before. Our feelings of connectedness through social media rob us of the motivation to connect with people in real life. Our awareness of the virtual world too often creates an obliviousness to the physical world around us.

Perhaps we could reawaken this awareness by traveling back to a time before social media through the medium of the new movie, “Soul on Fire,” which offers a powerful reminder of the value of selflessness.

Set in the 1990s and early 2000s, “Soul on Fire” tells the true story of John O’Leary, who accidentally sets himself on fire while experimenting with gasoline at age nine. In the blaze, 100% of his body is burned, 87% of those burns of the third degree.

When O’Leary’s accident happens, everyone in the city learns about it. “He’s not expected to make it through the night,” we hear the rich and famous whisper at a banquet.

One of those rich and famous people is Jack Buck, a local legend and the world-famous radio broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. According to the movie, he doesn’t know O’Leary nor his family, but he’s grieved about what happened, and visits him the night of the accident.

O’Leary’s parents are surprised but thrilled by Buck’s visit, as he tells the nine-year-old, “You’re going to live, you hear me, you’re going to live.” Upon leaving, he remarks, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Buck returns the next day and the next to check on the little boy. He goes beyond that, however, actually talking to O’Leary during a game broadcast, encouraging him through the radio that he’s going to be alright. When John finally leaves the hospital after a five-month stay, the Cardinals host “John O’Leary Day” and O’Leary is pushed in his wheelchair around the bases in front of thousands of fans before the game.

But Buck isn’t the only one who steps up. Early in O’Leary’s recovery, a nurse named Roy makes an explicit decision to believe that the little boy’s recovery is possible, even though other members of the hospital staff write him off. As a result, Roy gives O’Leary special attention, leaving him feeling cared for as a person, not just a project. It is Roy who pushes the little boy to physical therapy when he declares his belief that he will never walk again, and with Roy’s encouragement and the therapists’ guidance, O’Leary does regain that ability, eventually growing up to become a motivational speaker encouraging others through their own difficulties.

In fact, this movie is full of people good at what you might call “gap ministry.” We repeatedly watch as those in “Soul on Fire” see a need, a gap in O’Leary’s care that can be filled, and they accordingly fill it. No one tells them to move and step in. Instead, O’Leary’s recovery comes at the hands of people who are simply aware of the need around them and are willing to involve and inconvenience themselves for another person’s good.

Though a single movie will not solve our cultural problems, I am hopeful that those who see “Soul on Fire” will be encouraged by these models of selflessness.

In an age where we obsess over likes and shares, we could all use the reminder that we impact the world more by seeing others than by being seen. And maybe that’s where our recovery from loneliness begins. Not in drawing more attention to ourselves, but in giving it away for the good of others.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image Credit: YouTube/AFFIRM Films