FACEBOOK

Braving the fiery furnace of our recent heatwave, I made my regular trek next door to catch up on news with Grammy and Granddad.

Granddad sat watching a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game and Grammy was toodling at her computer. "Hey," she asked as I poured myself a glass of iced tea, "did you see ---------'s status update yesterday?" She read the status of one of our relatives off her screen, and we wondered together what message lay behind the typed words.

"Why would anybody want to be writing about themselves or checking up on other people on Facebook?" Granddaddy asked with a bit of disdain.

Well, his question got me to thinking. And that evening, while I was out walking the dogs, I think I hit upon an answer.

Some of us live fairly dull, quiet, isolated lives - not a lot of news or gossip or neighborly faces at my house most days. Facebook is a way to get outside my familiar four walls for a few minutes, a couple of times a day.

Steve used to get frustrated when he would try to engage me in conversation at the end of the work day. "So, what did you do today?"

"Ummmm, we did school. And chores. And I fixed lunch. And dinner...." I really had nothing much to relate. Every day was pretty much the same as the day before.

But Granddaddy's world runs very differently from mine. Coffee with the guys in town every morning - including all the local news and gossip, along with a plethora of silly stories and jokes. Then, off to the office for a bit to call or meet with clients, or to the golf course (more socializing), or some errand to tend to for his renters. He's out and about, meeting friends and kinfolk, chatting with his neighbors as he goes about his daily routine. Dinner out each week with this Woodmen lodge or another, church a couple times a week, highschool football games in the fall and baseball in the spring. For living in such a small town, Granddaddy moves in a pretty big world!

My day, on the other hand, looks more like this: Breakfast every morning with the kids, and then morning chores. School all day, including lunch, with the kids, and then afternoon chores. Finish up the laundry and start dinner. Walk the dogs. Weekends, it's movie night with the kids. My great excursions into the larger world each week include a trip to get groceries, which I try to check off as quickly as possible so that I can get home to unfinished household chores, and church on Sundays and Wednesdays. Need I say, I LOVE my time at church?!

So, when I check in on Facebook in the morning and find a message from a friend I haven't seen in twenty-five years asking me "Are you the Camille who....?" - or an encouraging note from a sister in Christ - or pictures of my out-of-town niece's new baby - or an invitation to a worship service where Tim Keller is preaching and Michael Card is providing the music - WOW!!! My four walls suddenly don't seem so close. And, when Steve asks me at dinner, "Anything interesting happen today?"...I have some answer besides, "Ummmm, nope. Just the same ol', same ol'."