Technology and The Wizard of Oz

In the wise words of Napoleon Dynamite, "Yes, I love technology."  In the past 24 hours I have talked to one friend in Alabama on the phone, seen a picture via text message of another friend's engagement ring in Atlanta, followed a third friend's business in Omaha on Facebook, and emailed a fourth friend in Indiana - and that's just today.  That doesn't even include the wonder that is gmail and Facebook chat.  I am thankful for technology and the easy bridges it builds - especially to places like Indiana, Nebraska, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma.

I am blessed with wonderful friends - slight problem being a lot of those friends live in places where I don't.  From the nursery on I had three best friends that I grew up with pre-school to high school graduation, and still going.  Birthday parties, Sunday school, small groups, youth group trips and so much more - I love those three girls.  On December 4, three of us stood in matching dresses while we watched the first of our four get married.  Now those three girls live in the great state of Indiana, while I am 450 miles southeast in Tennessee.  But thanks to technology I have communicated with all of them in some form or fashion in the past week.

When I left for college in Tennessee (the only friend to leave the state) I wondered how I would ever find friends like the ones I had.  Little did I know that there would be three more girls waiting on me.   Now to make my next point I have to confess something, I've been watching a lot of Dawson's Creek DVDs lately.  But in the process I watched a great exchange about friendship and the Wizard of Oz:


Gretchen Witter And Oz is ... 
Dawson: Technicolor. 
Gretchen Witter: And sure it has it's problems. You know, poppy fields, flying monkeys, ... 
Dawson: Talking trees. 
Gretchen Witter: But along the way you make friends. Good friends. With people that you never even knew existed when you were growing up. Straw people, tin people, ... 
Dawson: And lions. 
Gretchen Witter: [laughs] Exactly. And you help each other realize that all the things that you want to be, you already are. 

It's cheesy, I know.  But there is something lovely about these three people who six years ago I didn't know existed, and now I can't imagine my life without them.  We had a wonderful four years together that included two weddings, several road trips and picnic dinners.  Those three girls are now doing wonderful things (owning their own business, managing their own store, and medical school) in Nebraska, Alabama and Virginia.

While it would be preferable to be able to walk across the hall, through the parking lot, or down the street to talk with all of these peoples - I'll work with what I have.  So thank you Mark Zuckerberg and people much smarter than I am for helping me keep in touch.