Maggi Dawn or My Wife?

Every once in a while, circumstances collide in order to illustrate a very useful point, and yesterday was one such occasion. 

I was sitting in a soft-play centre while the kids burned off some of their superfluous energy, all the while nursing my Blackcurrant, my new gadget of choice. I can now text my wife, speak to her and others, read and send emails, order pizza, Tweet, update Facebook, and a whole manner of other things - all from one delightful little handheld gadget. While the kids played, I busied myself with said forest fruit of the gadget generation!

Then an two interesting things happened - simultaneously, I recieved a text from the Mrs Acular and a Tweet (direct to me) from none other that one Maggi Dawn, of blogging and other fames. Wow, she tweeted me! The thing is, Maggi Dawn or Mrs Acular - which message do I read first (what would Tommy Zoom do?). The wife lost - sorry wife! This quandary hadn't escaped me, but rather reminded me of something that I saw once that is now something of the frequent flyer - gadget world versus real world. 

Once, a couple I know were sitting next to one another on a settee in a room where I too was sitting. Both were texting ... each other. It turned out that while the bonhomie of the moment flowed like good Rioja, they were entwined in a grotesque marital bicker which they continued electronically underneath the good conversation we were all having. 

At said Soft-Play area, I looked around. Easily a third of the adults in the warehouse in which we sat were engaged in an electronic encounter. I could see Facebooks, Twitters, texts, games, pictures of the kids, and so on. It is seeming to me that the most prolific relationships are those that involve none of that filthy personal contact stuff - Heaven forefend. On my Facebook I have two-hundred-million friends (well, a few fewer than that), on Twitter I can engage in dialogue with both Maggi Dawn and Banksy (of graffiti fame) at the same time - and I could easily burn away hours doing it. 

These were once hours I used to grant my wife, do chores and the little jobs that 'keeping home' demand. I am guilty as charged m'lud! I am now starting to spend more quality time with my gadget friends than I do with the centre of my universe, the fragrant and wonderful Mrs Acular. I am in good company, because it seems that we are all 'at it' - even the aforementioned Uberhomefuhrer is Facebooking like a woman possessed - to friends who themselves are married. 

This extrapolates easily into the world of our faith. No wonder some eejit is proposing to celebrate the Holy Mysteries on Twitter - the eejit might have a point. I am willing to bet that many Christians spend more time 'logged on' that at church ... so I am secretly hoping that God has a Twitter account too.