The Time

I think it's funny how technology is becoming so advanced and is such an important part of our society. Kids in elementary school have cell phones, you’re the odd one out if you don’t have a smart phone with Internet, there seems to be at least one I pad in every household, and people text each other when they are in the same room. My niece and nephew have there own I touches, I don’t even have one haha, and I see these two little kids playing on them. People of all ages are more and more expected to have a facebook and to have text. Here’s my embarrassing story from a few weeks ago…

So I’m on the phone in an important conversation, and towards the end of it, I say, “Yeah sounds good, just text me the info, and we’re good to go.” The person hesitantly replied, “This is going to sound so weird, but I actually don’t text, my kids try to get me to, but I just don’t do it…” I interrupted her, saying, “Oh your totally fine, no worries, just email it and that’s great.” I think we both felt dumb. Haha

Now for the beeping story. So I ran in the Salt Lake City Half Marathon yesterday morning. As I crossed the starting line I heard all of this beeping go off all around me. What the? Yes, everyone presses start on their garmins.

You can’t even run a race any more with out hearing people’s garmins go off the entire time telling them they are going too fast – too slow – oh wait, now your going too fast – ok too slow again, you have to speed up. Some people don’t enjoy the run anymore, it seems to be all about “the time.” Maybe I’m just jealous that I don’t have one of these awesome devices. Haha.

It’s also slightly sad how we just tend to tune out in our own world, when we put those little headphones in our ears. It used to be that people would talk to each other during a race, now more and more people, stick their I pods in their ears, and so you can’t even find that many people to talk to. With all the great technology out there, more and more people are, running the race by themselves, instead of everyone leaning on each other, allowing people around them to lift them up, and having people they can talk to.

Don’t get me wrong, garmins, I pods, and all those things are great, I just hope that we take time to enjoy the ride too and not just get through things to reach “our best time.” Gordon B. Hinkley said, “Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.” Lets not forget what matters most. Go for a run and instead of popping in the usual tunes, listen to the beautiful music around us that God has created. I hope that with all the great new inventions out there, we still take time to connect with people. I love how Elaine S. Dalton put it, “we should have virtuous friends, not virtual friends.” There are so many simple things to find joy in, so lets not obsess over the less important things, but remember what really matters most.