No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them

[PlainName]

I just read this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/opinion/doctor-patient-death-truth.html

where the author says:

In the most generous version of that night, my goal was to give my patient the information he needed so that he could reach out to those he loved, to say whatever he would want to say with the knowledge that his time was short.

I think "reach out" was exactly what was meant and quite appropriate. This piece made me realise that it could be us at fault: we reach out and then contact someone, or reach out to contact them.

[eti]