I had a great little weekend road trip to Lake Tahoe, Reno and Truckee (and many other little California mountain towns in between). I am something of a technophile - my laptop and my Blackberry go almost everywhere with me. There are times when I deliberately set one or the other aside to temporarily sever my electronic umbilical cord, but they are rare.
I very much love the fact that almost where ever you go in America you can be connected to your friends and family scattered across the country and they are only a few electrons away. The age is rapidly approaching when "always connected, always on" is the norm and not the exception, and that age is right upon us. There is room for a huge debate about whether or not that is a good thing or a wise thing but that is mostly like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of pin. It may be an interesting, amusing and perhaps insightful debate but largely an irrelevant one.
There is a subtle power in it though that was simply and powerfully demonstrated to me over the weekend. On Saturday night, as I was waiting for my nephew to get ready to go and get some dinner I popped out the Blackberry and sent a quick slew of emails off to my friends, describing the trip so far, highlighting what I liked, extending that comforting touch, checking on other things going on.
When I woke up Sunday morning one of my friends had responded to disagree with me. I had told her that the best part of the trip so far had been the Scallops de la Mar at Rojo's. She politely disagreed and told me the best part was the experience of Lake Tahoe with the mind/body/spirit. She was absolutely correct. If you have never seen Lake Tahoe it is an incredible place. The word stunning does not do it justice. But in the rush of our lives it is easy to miss the lake because you are watching or captivated by all of the things around the lake. I did not miss the lake, I just valued one small thing (the scallops, which were excellent) more that I valued the very large thing (the experience of the region). Being analytical by nature and inclination and training it is easy for me to lose sight of the scope of things.
That simple email response from my friend was enjoy to serve the purpose of a smack alongside the head with a Zen stick. It's didn't enlighten me (that would take repeated smacks with a very large stick), but it did snap me out of the tight focus and remind to also know the entirety ofthe experience. I think that is one of the sublime blessings of friendships - that ability to see things through another persons eyes, if only for a moment, and in that moment to see more than we normally would have seen.
I know that one of the many things I enjoyed very much over the weekend was seeing the Lake Tahoe area with my nephew, who had never been there before and was initially reluctant to come along, probably wondering why his Uncle was dragging him 400 miles to look at a lake. Watching the impact of it on him, beholding it for the first time, was very cool.
Now, I am back at work, the ordinary things of ordinary life are swirling around me. But I simply think back and recall that brilliant blue lake and I center. Beauty, in all its forms, is an astounding thing, whether that beauty is the natural beauty of Lake Tahoe - or the company of friends (either in person or electronically). Sent via BlackBerry by AT
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