We Weren't Talking to Each Other at All

     I've been away from my blog almost completely these past several months. Not sure why...got caught up with other activities, I suppose. And now, I'm back to it---also with no known reason why. But, I do want to leave some of my thoughts for my family members (and others who might get curious).

     We recently gave up our satellite TV & internet service and have gone to a program offered by Verizon which includes those [and, oh, that marvelous Netflix!] with our telephones, in a bundle. We put up a $30 antenna that gets us also twenty some-odd channels---trying to save dollars and still be in the know and up to snuff. My retirement allows entire evenings to be utilized by these various fascinating venues.

     Which gets me to where I was heading. These technological pathways are rewarding, time-consuming, and some would say addicting. I don't know how positive or negative this activity actually is. But, I know at one point this past Sunday with 14 people in our home, 12 were absorbed almost exclusively perusing some kind of device---tablet or phone or TV. Communal communication was supremely limited, that is to say, we weren't talking to each other at all. [When televisions first came to my childhood village in the 1950's, I recall several old timers proclaiming them weapons of Satan. My aged grandmother who lived next door even had difficulty determining if televised programs were real or fiction.]

     Perhaps, communication isn't what it's cracked up to be. George Bernard Shaw said, "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place," perhaps to be illustrated in "Don't you text me in that tone of voice!" All I feel very sure about in this area after 71 years of observation is that Language is just one more tool in the belt of humanity---bringing occasional great Good and occasional great Evil.

     The book of James in the Bible offers some great advice about the use of the human tongue. I would recommend it to all---all who know me understand that I probably should be the first one to put this advice into practice.

     I guess communicating is like everything else. Balance is all-important!