What Is Really Fascinating

I recently placed an order on-line from my office at work.  It was an order that was paid with my personal credit card.  I finished the order, clicked “submit”, and got the screen that says something like “Thank you for your order”, etc.  A few seconds later, my phone dinged, telling me that I received an email confirming my order.  A couple of seconds after that, it dinged again, telling me that my credit card had been billed.

I went into the church secretary’s office to retrieve a copy off of the copier, and paused to tell her that I continue to be fascinated no end by the fact that I can order something on line and just a few seconds later my phone will ding to tell me both that I have an email which confirms my order, and will ding again to tell me that I have an email telling me my credit card has been charged.

She told me I needed to get out more.

I laughed and agreed that was possibly the case.  But (and I’ve talked about this before), the technology that makes it possible for all of this to happen is to me just a wondrous, almost magical thing.  I’ll not regale you at this point with stories of the “olden days” when I would have given my right arm for a dial tone (many of us probably don’t know what that is anymore) in my car, let alone on my hip…to say nothing of instant communication via email, coordination of technologies and other modern marvels.  I’ll let that pass, for now.

Lest we think that we are the only generation with wondrous happenings, I want to remind you that every generation had it’s wondrous moments.  I am amazed, for example, that in my grandfather’s day, people loaded up everything they owned on a covered wagon, or in the box car of a train, and took off for God-knows-where in the middle of nowhere to start a new life consisting of backbreaking work, foul and dangerous weather, deprivation and totally at the mercy of the environment and elements.  Yet they persevered, built farms, factories, and cities, towns, schools, railroads, highways and byways while at the same time building families and a legacy unmatched.

I am awed by those who lived through the Great Depression, who stood in bread lines and unemployment lines; who made do by raising garden and farm produce, bartering for what they needed.  They saved literally every nickel, and considered having a dollar to be a great blessing.  They worked in WPA projects building shelter belts, highways, bridges, buildings, and public infrastructure.  They were comforted by President Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” on the radio, and knew what it meant to do without so others would have.

I marvel that men and women in my mom and dad’s day signed up by the millions for military service, willing and ready to be shipped off to North Africa, Italy, Great Britain, Guam, the Phillippines, Iwo Jima, or wherever else they were needed.  They were shot at (and shot up), shot down, drowned, tortured, murdered, sleep deprived, maimed, disfigured, and forever changed.  Yet they continued, confronting Evil itself face to face, and Evil blinked.

I remember with wonder the times of my generation in its younger days, when men and women took up causes such as segregation, war, affirmative action, voting rights, and others; when they went to the moon and came back, when they worked diligently to reverse the unbridled manufacture and deployment of nuclear weapons and promote peace.  At the same time, others fought and died in a jungle half a world away for a cause no one was certain about, but some knew better, yet continued the status quo and the carnage.  Some were imprisoned in camps of the enemy, yet persevered.  Some died there.  Some came back.  All were heroes.

So it’s not necessarily only the “gee whiz” factor in the immediate notifications and coordination of communications services I find fascinating.  It’s the human spirit and the abilities we’ve been given to create, produce, craft, and build.  It’s our ability to change and make things better.  It’s our fortitude and perseverance.  It’s the blessings of God that rain down upon us no matter whether we’re in a covered wagon or a spacecraft orbiting the moon.

That is what is fascinating.