Something to think about...

He doesn't profess to be Bill Nye, But Bio's his major, and that's no lie.

Nature and Sunday: a welcome break from a world gone tech

I was very pleasantly surprised the other day at my bank (of all places) by a response from the teller I was talking to.

"What's your cell phone?" she asked. A phone number was required to complete a form for a new checking account.

"Well, I don't have one," I replied, somewhat sheepishly.

"How refreshing!" she said.

Her offhand comment got me to pondering. Self, I pondered, why is that refreshing? There are countless benefits to having mobile phones: constant reach-ability, succor in emergency, phat ringtones to listen to in the line at the grocery store, to name a few. But could there be, perhaps, negative consequences that also accompany man's great advances in telecommunications?

I don't know about you, but sometimes all of our modern accessories � incessantly chattering televisions, paging pagers, blinking blueteeth, thumping sound-systems, infinitesimal iPods, ubiquitous MySpace�sometimes, they are just too much for me.

In fact, I must often grit my teet �and, on my worse days, don a straightjacket�to endure a full hour of a Maury Povich special entitled "Guess which woman is a man" as background noise when I'm trying to study.

And why allow a perfectly good conversation to be interrupted by the strident shrill of an ill-timed phone call? It's common (well, uncommon I suppose) courtesy to let the call go unanswered and prevent diverting one's attention from the conversation one previously chose to be involved in.

I'll tell you what keeps me from simply going off my rocker: nature and Sunday.

An occasional hike to an obscure sylvan destination, such as Jacks River Falls in the Cohutta Wilderness of North Georgia, works wonders for my mental condition.

Then there's Sunday�ah, the day of rest. I'm assured God knew what He was doing when He established the statute of setting one day aside for rest and worship. Sunday could be just another frenetic day that leads us further down the madly spiraling path to a panic attack. Instead, when used properly it imparts a sense of structure for the following week and the vigor to approach it confidently.

You may consider me captious; you may think I'm caviling. Maybe I am. But if you think even twice about taking a call during an important conversation, then I've accomplished my purpose.