I was born to parents who loved me. That made me lucky right out of the gate. I have heard many stories told by those who did not share this luxury.

They also loved each other, but it was complicated.

My mother grew up in pre-WWII England where she lived a comfortable life as the daughter of a bank manager. She watched her parents engage in an active social life as a result of her father’s position.

My father grew up as the child of non-English speaking Lithuanian immigrants who worked in a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His parents worked hard and drank hard with the other immigrants in their neighborhood.

Neither of them strayed outside of their well defined social circles until war made it necessary. They met on a train while dressed in their respective nation’s uniforms, each returning to their military base in England.

My future parents had one face-to-face date, then wrote letters for a few years before my father asked my mother to marry him and come to America. She said yes.

That took guts. Imagine letting go of everything you know about the world and taking a chance on love. Just saying “yes” and diving in. It wasn’t a fairy tale ending, but their marriage lasted for thirty-five years until my father’s death.

I’m not recommending that people give up their lives and fall in love with strangers. At least I don’t think I am. We have far more opportunity now to know everything about someone before we jump into a relationship. You would think this would make it easier to find a life partner or even a friend, but I suspect it is more difficult. Is it best to consider everything you discover about someone over social media or from web searches? Should you do a criminal and financial background check before you consider dating someone? Or do so later if you start to grow serious?

With so much gossip, random facts, awkward moments and sensitive data floating around in the digital universe, it is possible to form a strong opinion about a person without ever talking to them. Is that an accurate assessment, or has something important been overlooked? How many flaws does it take to eliminate a person who hasn’t even entered your life? Five? One?

While our shortcomings and mistakes are on display for the world, studies are popping up in developed countries exposing the growing loneliness of people of all ages.

Loneliness. An epidemic on the rise. Humans unable to connect with one another but aching to do so. How do we transcend this gap that keeps us apart?

We are bombarded with information: warnings about scams, news of tragedies, articles about how to stay safe, exposés of individuals that have deluded trusting people, rapes, murders, drug deaths, child molesting, human trafficking—an onslaught of the worst that people can be. We’ve become socialized to trust no one and fear everyone.

It’s not that we don’t know how to love. Just look at how many people love their pets. We hold them in our hearts, hug them, play with them, care for them, organize our lives around them, treat them with dignity and respect, all the while knowing the day will come when we will outlive them and we will have to let them go. That takes guts.

Love and guts go together. Letting another human into our lives—whether it is our own child or another’s, a new lover, a potential friend—letting that human touch our hearts and touching their hearts back, without knowing where it will lead or what we may gain or lose, that takes guts.

We could all use more love. What if we each took a step forward and reached out to someone to see how that goes? And tried again with another even if the first time failed? We could make new connections in person, and by doing so make the world a smaller, kinder, more human place.

It’s scary.

Do you have the guts?