I mean
look at
our
lives.
Thirty
years
ago, the
most you
had to
worry
about
was your
home
phone,
your
office
phone,
maybe a
fax
number
and a
pager
number.
That was
about
the
extent
of your
so-called
‘social
contact’
inventory.
Now we
have
e-mail,
web
mail,
G-mail,
You-Tube,
I-Phone,
I-Pods,
Face
book, My
space,
Your
space,
cell
phones,
Instant
messaging
as well
as our
office
and home
phones.
Who has
time for
all of
this?
Our
lives
have
morfed
into
this
cosmic
level of
consciousness
that
dictates
our
every
moment
of every
day.
Personal
eye
contact
is at an
all time
low. Try
going to
lunch
with
someone
who has
a
Blackberry…no
way to
have a
meaningful
conversation
since
the
whole
time
you’re
talking,
they’re
nodding
like
some
many
bobble
heads
while
reading
what
just
arrived
on their
ether
connection.
And the
things
they are
reading
are
really
earth
shattering.
Important
stuff
such as
what
baseball
manager
just got
canned
or what
movie
star was
just
released
from
jail in
the last
hour or
so. Here
you are
talking
to some
person
(male or
female)
and they
are off
in the
information
never-never
land
plugging
useless
pieces
of
garbage
into
their
already
overloaded
brains.
You
might as
well be
talking
to the
chair or
the
waiter.
In fact
the
waiter
would
probably
be a
better
shot
since
they
can’t
usually
afford a
Blackberry.
If the
other
person
doesn’t
have a
Blackberry,
then all
you have
to
contend
with is
their
cell
phones
ringing
with the
latest
emergency
of the
hour.
“Can you
bring
home
some
milk?”
or “What
program
was I
supposed
to Tivo?”
Important
things
that
can’t
wait
thirty
minutes.
Folks
used to
complain
to me
about
porn on
the
television.
I’ve
told
them
there is
a great
tool on
their
set that
will
defeat
all porn
and stop
it from
coming
into
their
homes.
They
always
look at
me with
great
amazement
and
say…”Wow,
where is
it?”
I tell
them
it’s
called
the
on-off
button.
Same
thing
with
obscene
callers.
Not so
much of
a
problems
these
days
with
caller
id, but
years
ago
ladies
in my
office
would
complain
about
some
jerk
calling
late at
night
and
rattling
off a
long
series
of
obscene
suggestions.
Here
again my
highly
defined
sense of
sensitivity
kicks in
and I
always
would
ask one
simple
question.
“Why
didn’t
you just
hang
up?”
So much
for
compassion….someone
once
told me
I had a
spiritual
gift….when
I asked
what
they
thought
mine
was…they
replied
that it
was the
gift of
cruelty.
Anyway,
back to
the
point,
if you
are
honestly
trying
to have
a
meaningful
conversation
with
someone
about
something
really
important
such as
the end
of the
world as
we know
it or
what is
their
plans
once the
nuclear
missiles
arrive
and they
are
obviously
ignoring
you in
favor of
the
Calgary
Flames
latest
hockey
score,
then you
need to
either
leave or
start
talking
on your
cell
phone as
well.
Since I
don’t
have a
Blackberry
nor do I
want
one, I
find
that
just
punching
the keys
on my
cell
phone
works
just as
well and
is
somewhat
distracting
to the
person I
am with
at the
time. Of
course
if you
are
going to
follow
my
example,
I must
warn you
to be
careful.
The
other
day I
was
using
this
technique
and
called
some rug
dealer
in
Kabul.
We were
fine
until I
found
out he
didn’t
take
American
Express.
One of
the
other
things I
have yet
to
figure
out is
how
people
can keep
up with
four or
five
e-mail
addresses
along
with
2,000 of
their
closest
friends.
I don’t
have
2,000
friends
and
what’s
more I
don’t
want
2,000
friends.
I have
enough
friends.
I have a
hard
enough
time
keeping
up with
the ones
I have
now.
What
with
birthdays,
anniversaries,
weddings,
babies
and
funerals,
I am
pressed
to the
max.
When you
were
young,
all you
had to
worry
about
was
getting
invited
to some
classmate’s
birthday
party
where
Jojo the
clown
was
going to
show up.
Then you
went
through
a phase
where
everyone
graduated
and you
got
those
invitations.
Then
everyone
got
married
and you
went to
those…then
came
housewarming
parties…then
those
who
stayed
married
had kids
and you
got
those
announcements.
In some
cases
you got
invitation
to
friends
who were
getting
a
divorce.
When you
get to
be as
old as I
am, you
get it
all…Birth
announcements
and
obituaries,
sometimes
on the
same
day.
