Hellos and Goodbyes

There are some people you always remember the first time you met them. In my case, my wife and, of course, my two children. I knew the first time I saw her, I'd marry my wife. And I tease our children that thanks to technology, I knew who they were long before they knew me (I sometimes wonder if they could have, would we have still met but I see no reason to start down a path whose twists and turns, and ending, I cannot foresee). We had names for them months before they arrived and I took enormous comfort knowing I wasn't bringing a stranger into my home from the hospital.

Now, in an era where so much social media and technology have supplanted person to person, it's different in terms of 'the first I read your tweet' or the first 'like' someone placed on an image you'd posted. I sat alongside of someone at an event yesterday who very politely made it clear as we spoke that facebook,  linkedin and google plus were all fine but he still preferred the knock on the door and the 'hello, may I please introduce myself to you?' routine.

As Dylan observed in another life, those who are not busy being born are busy dying and today will be another busy day here on the ant farm. All mouths, no ears. Some blame the pagers and cell phones. I think it's the batteries. Without them, we'd have none of the devices unless we could accommodate the tether. But perhaps we could, since not even the birds are free they are chained to the sky.
-bill kenny