We’ve talked a good bit about our relative isolation here on Skinny Island, our reverence for the quiet, simple, small life dictated by the ocean and the changing seasons, but something else is happening here now as well, something unforseen and equally wonderful.  It’s kind of like watching a vast, never-ending film, a “tapestry of rich and royal hue” that, in a quite healthy way, I think, is opening to a wider acceptance and understanding.

Normally pathologically punctual, we were nevertheless late arrivals to this happening.  It had been happily underway for quite some time, apparently, when we tuned in.  Invitation to attend had come from far and wide, but we had reservations of a different kind.  We’re talking about the Social Network, of course, and while there are still reservations, we see things now in a different light.

It is, in some ways mesmerizing, almost dreamlike, certainly surreal, (describing the best of film.)  I watch the musings, antics, activities, anxieties, triumphs, and failures of sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews.  I am in tune with friends from childhood, high school, college, college again, and later professional and social friends, professors and co-workers.  Contacts in California, Colorado, Utah, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, and other places regale me with their everyday lives.  That’s the beautiful key: the everydayness of it all.  It is a glimpse into all these lives, as they exist, day to day, better and worse, that is so riveting.  The travel, observations of weather and mood, having a meal someplace special, preparing for a sermon or class, horses jumping, birds and snow, remembrances and hopes, sonograms of impending babies, concerts, frustrations, sicknesses, and other amazing little insights into life on the move.  I am thankful and awed, moved and inspired.  That we are able to do this, through technology, an often maligned innovation, I find truly remarkable and satisfying.  I have re-established contact with old friends, and cemented bonds long dormant.  In short, I have connected.  The movie flows on endlessly, within you and without you.

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