Interesting Times

May you find what you are looking for.

With the press of a button, words I write under the covers on a rainy day can suddenly be available the world over - my neighbor ten feet away can read what I have to say just as easily as a far-flung friend in a café in Italy.

We live in interesting times.

I can pick up the black obelisk in my pocket and speak, softly, and my voice is carried up, up, and away, to land in the ear of another, half a country away; by the same measure, I can press that dark husk of glass and metal to my ear and hear the voice of someone distant with the same clarity as if it were instead her very lips pressed against me.

We live in interesting times.

I can open the lid of my laptop, and within a few minutes can be face-to-face with nearly anyone the around the globe; imperfections of memory are vanquished, no need to close my eyes and remember when instead I can open them, to have them filled with every curve, dimple, and feature.

We live in interesting times.

But I cannot snap my fingers and transport myself to far-flung regions of the world, planes, trains, and automobiles incapable of rivaling the immediacy of pulses traveling within the wire; every electronic connection made is another reminder that “us” – the you and I physical us, the unencoded and transmitted us – are still apart, two hearts forever knowing no truth of closeness, despite these digital facsimiles.

We live in interesting times.