Window to the World

I sit at my desk and view the world. Consider what just happened the few hours I have spent in front of my window this morning:

- I just got off Skype with my brother in Peru, we conversed as if we were in the same room and were able to see each other at the same time.

- I posted a picture on Facebook to share with my friends and a dozen of them commented on it. They were from Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, and even Iraq. All within the last few hours.

- I frequently talk with people that I went to high school with over 30 years ago.

- I will be sending out this column as a blog to over 700 people and they will all get it within seconds of my sending it.

- I am doing some research on Egypt and I found a live-cam on the Giza Plateau where I can look at the pyramids live and all the people who are visiting there RIGHT NOW!

- I am digitally archiving all our old photos so I am scanning them in the background while I am writing this. All these pictures bring me back to times and places and people long forgotten.

- I got a news blog that gives me articles and even news clips on the latest news and happenings in the world. I can see it in my window AS IT IS HAPPENING. I just watched a live feed from Iraq, Yemen, and Hawaii within seconds of each other.

- A friend emailed me a hilarious Youtube video which I watched and laughed till I cried.

- My home page gives me the latest of my favorite comics, the current price of gold and a few stocks I own, a live satellite image of my local weather, and pictures from all over the world taken by National Geographic.

My window to the world is an amazing thing. I hear that computers and the internet are destroying relationships and causing people to become more "closed" and separate from society. But I look through my window and see, talk, and interact with more people than I EVER would on a "real" one-on-one basis. Don't get me wrong, I and all of us need human "real" interaction and not just digital. But my window connects me with people who I would have long forgotten, with people with whom it would be impossible otherwise, more frequently and more deeply than I could or would without it. Umm ... like YOU right NOW.