Thoughts on the way

Everyone has something to say today. More than ever... at Facebook, by blogging, Twitter, etc. Technology really has taken us to a new place of "saying our piece", sharing our minds, updating each other of our status. I'm a bit conflicted about it all. Sometimes I'm "in" and sometimes I want the way it was about 15 years ago. I wonder how did I ever commute in a large metropolis like Orlando twice a day for 45 minutes and not have a cell phone? What was it like to come home make dinner, relax and never need or want to check email, facebook or blogs. Today, I am camping on the Kenai and using my laptop for this very blog. What incredible dymanics we move among in the millenium. Friends answer my facebook posting from their Iphones and Blackberry, send short sweet texts and even photos at the most unusual times. And yet, occasionally it feels really right and healthy to unplug. I did that in June 2009 for two weeks. It did a world of good. Somehow I felt centered back into who I simply am without my fingers touching a keyboard everyday. And detachment took me to a gentler place - almost like time travel - to a world that is graced with real time eye contact and simple polite conversations. Returning to all this technology, I watch sometimes the type of posts that folks do over politics and various other news trivia, and I do have to wonder where our manners have gone? Sometimes we speak so freely and boldly that I have to pause and just say "wow"... Yes, free speach is our right and blessing in this country. Yet, free speech also has its place (I feel). I feel like maybe more of us might take sabbatical from our quick fingers and rapid slams of this person or that topic. Maybe pause and reframe. In every controversial issue and disappointment that angers or frustrates us there is the possibility for divine right and good outcome. So, this is just me... but I think we all might reconsider who and when we slam and allow a bit of genteele back into our lives.
That said - my favorite picture of lighter moments and pure simple pleasure is the one shared here of my daughter's feet as we enjoyed a family vacation on a tour boat in Kuaui Nov. 2008... May all our communications be candid if needed, yet kind and respectful.