Webcurrents ... Today's Column ... Archive Index "We have more ability than will power, and it is often
an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible."
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1998 The Grass Beneath Our Feet As someone said, time flies whether you're having fun or not. I've been away from my computer during the holiday season, which seems to have come and gone in a rush. In fact, 1997 as a whole seemed to fly by for me, and I find myself entering 1998 with some new priorities, one of which is to decrease my online hours. We immerse ourselves in new technology and its possibilities, but once the newness wears off, we can begin more honestly to evaluate its place in our lives. The world of electronic communication beckons and we heed its call. But in the real world the wind is blowing through the trees, a child is coloring a masterpiece and a pet awaits food and water or a game of fetch. We climb a mountain because it's there. But sometimes in the process we lose sight of the grass beneath our feet. This is not meant to be a cryptic dialogue, or by any means an essay on the merits and/or perils of the Internet, which in my mind far exceed the "vast wasteland" that is our television industry on both accounts. But what are we becoming? A global village, to be certain, but in our vision of the distance are we also losing sight of those close to us? A warning, then, is what I guess I am trying to convey. A word of caution to those who have been online, as in my case, for years, as well as to those only now discovering cyberspace and adding e-mail addresses to their business cards. Embrace it. Explore it. Then turn off your computer, and go see who is waiting for you. In the news recently, two public figures are killed within a week in skiing accidents. Kennedy was careless. Sonny Bono lost his life on an intermediate slope and apparently had been skiing alone. Both lost control, ran into trees and probably died instantly, although the investigation into Rep. Bono's death is still under way. Such a shame. On the technology front, Microsoft delivers a new version of Internet Explorer for the Macintosh but without integrating it into the desktop as in Windows versions. I'm afraid that development unfortunately will be coming down the pike, however. In our town, we elected a new sheriff since my last column after the old one was ousted. My memory of the former sheriff's tumultuous but mercifully brief tenure will always include his life size cardboard cutouts of John Wayne, which were on display in his office during a tour of the new jail last year. Somehow an identical cardboard cutout found its way into our kitchen as part of a Christmas prank. The Duke's cowboy-hat-bedecked silhouette in the dim morning light nearly scared me out of my wits as I wandered in to fix some coffee. I wonder where those other cardboard cutouts could be now? Out on the web, see what's in store for the Mac faithful at this week's MacExpo. Today's links ...
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