Sisters

Gabriella and 'Lise (riding Ti)

How cool is this! I mentioned that I am a technophile. I just discovered that I can now push pictures and messages to my blog from my mobile phone! Call me silly, and maybe behind the times, but this stuff gets me going :-)

Of course entering much meaningful text will have to wait till I log on with a computer (as I am now) thanks to a 250 character limit and a phone keypad.

I often think about how my world seems to be shrinking, or maybe it is better to say I feel my reach into the world is increaseing. Everyday we seem to find new and faster ways of using technology to reach out to learn, to share, to communicate, to do business, to entertain. I can speak to anyone, anywhere, almost anytime. I can get email on the go. I can look up a recipie while riding the train, find a new song while sitting in a coffee shop and listen to it at work. I can show people hundreds of miles away what I am seeing at any moment.

But what is the effect. Do we communicate more, or do we dilute our communication into inefectuality? Do we become wiser with knowledge, or just get lint roller minds with lots of odd things stuck in them? Are we more at peace for getting things done more efficiently, or are we more stressed because we have so much more to do? If I forget my cell or PDA when I leave the house I feel naked.

I think what is easy for me to know but sometimes hard to remember is all my gizmos and gadgets and the connections they make are tools. They are the means not the end. When I build a fence, the important thing is the fence, not the hammer. The important things in our life are the relationships we have. Use the tools, enjoy them, but don't let them be the end.

Take time to watch the kids instead of taking their picture, sometimes memories are better. Send a card instead of an email. Go visit your mom instead of calling her from the road, hugs are easier that way.

As I said, I love this stuff. But every now and then I leave it all in the house and walk out in the field. I sit on a fence and look down the green valley. I see the sun in my wife's hair. I feel the wind on my face and smell the hay. Hear the birds singing and the kids laughing. Pet my horse. And the world is big and I am small again - and it is a good thing.