Stephanie and baby, 22 weeks and counting
"The Joys of Technology." To be honest, this is one of the least likely of all subjects on which I might ever write. It would be right up there with, “How to Get to the Moon” (although I can pretty well get around Tokyo now), “French Cooking,” or for that matter, any cooking at all (although I once edited a cookbook and taught cooking classes in Fukuoka and Kobe), and, “How to Love Your Dog” (especially after seeing the sweatered and diapered one being carried by its owner in Jiyugaoka today). A much more probable topic for me would be, “I Hate Technology.”
Suffice it to say that I don’t enjoy or understand my computer, although it is indispensable to my work—which is why, and I’m giving your fair warning, I don’t want anyone changing my settings for any reason, thank you very much. I also don’t turn on our television, DVD player, or video. Actually, I’ve never cared that much for television, even the small black and white portable that was in my parents’ kitchen for years and was operated with a simple on/off switch. Truth is, I don’t know how to navigate all the technology today that is second nature to most anyone younger than I am, but as long as I can turn the computer on and get my Microsoft Word program to operate, I don’t really care to learn more.
So why am I thinking about the joys of technology as I sit down to compose this blog? Chalk it up to my devotional time this morning. As I was thanking God for so many blessings in my life, I realized that yesterday the computer and telephone had enabled us to talk with our son in Guam, my father in Indiana, our daughter in China, and Bernie’s mother, sister, nieces, and nephew-in-law in Missouri on the first anniversary of his father’s death. On top of that, e-mail had enabled me to make good progress on a history book that my father and I are writing together, despite being half a world apart in miles.
Talking with God, I admitted with thanksgiving that it is technology that keeps my far-flung family together. After all, the Creator of the universe also fashioned human intelligence and formed those whose inventions enrich my life so much, allowing me to stay in instant communication with those I love nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Among other things, I can “watch” our daughter’s tummy expand as the baby grows in her womb. How different than our early days in Japan when we heard about Bernie’s father’s heart attack in a letter ten days after the fact. (And this was far better than even a generation earlier when our missionary predecessors came by freighter to Japan rather than hopping a plane for an easy, although long, trans-Pacific flight.)
It is astounding to think that our daughter has even called me to discuss a recipe while she was cooking dinner, as though she were in the apartment next door. Now I’m just waiting for the day technology enables me to sample it, too!
Suffice it to say that I don’t enjoy or understand my computer, although it is indispensable to my work—which is why, and I’m giving your fair warning, I don’t want anyone changing my settings for any reason, thank you very much. I also don’t turn on our television, DVD player, or video. Actually, I’ve never cared that much for television, even the small black and white portable that was in my parents’ kitchen for years and was operated with a simple on/off switch. Truth is, I don’t know how to navigate all the technology today that is second nature to most anyone younger than I am, but as long as I can turn the computer on and get my Microsoft Word program to operate, I don’t really care to learn more.
So why am I thinking about the joys of technology as I sit down to compose this blog? Chalk it up to my devotional time this morning. As I was thanking God for so many blessings in my life, I realized that yesterday the computer and telephone had enabled us to talk with our son in Guam, my father in Indiana, our daughter in China, and Bernie’s mother, sister, nieces, and nephew-in-law in Missouri on the first anniversary of his father’s death. On top of that, e-mail had enabled me to make good progress on a history book that my father and I are writing together, despite being half a world apart in miles.
Talking with God, I admitted with thanksgiving that it is technology that keeps my far-flung family together. After all, the Creator of the universe also fashioned human intelligence and formed those whose inventions enrich my life so much, allowing me to stay in instant communication with those I love nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Among other things, I can “watch” our daughter’s tummy expand as the baby grows in her womb. How different than our early days in Japan when we heard about Bernie’s father’s heart attack in a letter ten days after the fact. (And this was far better than even a generation earlier when our missionary predecessors came by freighter to Japan rather than hopping a plane for an easy, although long, trans-Pacific flight.)
It is astounding to think that our daughter has even called me to discuss a recipe while she was cooking dinner, as though she were in the apartment next door. Now I’m just waiting for the day technology enables me to sample it, too!
