Off Star

It is amusing bordering on amazing to me to consider how quickly we adapt to the use of new technology.

When my daughter and I drove from Texas to Michigan for her to relocate for law school there (and yes I am completely aware of how many times I have mentioned that but I am incredibly proud of her and bragging about her is not likely to stop any time soon) the first step in planning the trip was not opening up an atlas or unfolding a map, but rather firing up our computers.

Using various online map programs, we looked at a couple of versions of the shortest route, trying to avoid rush hour traffic in the larger cities we'd cross and figuring out where a reasonable halfway point would be to stop for the night. The answer we were looking for? Blytheville, Arkansas (although the judges would also have accepted "East Nowhere, Arkansas").You know, Blytheville. Just after you go through Osceola and before you get to Carruthersville? Yeah, that Blytheville.We came up with a road map printed on one side of a piece of paper with a list of the roughly 23 exits and turns needed to keep to our course printed on the other. Those directions were plenty good enough to get us from point A (Austin, Texas) to point B (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and all of that without ever getting lost.Pretty remarkable to my mind. After roughly 10 minutes on a computer we ended up with clear directions from the north side of town all the way to my daughter's new apartment, four states away. To be more specific, 1,381 miles and 20 hours 52 minutes excluding sleeping eating or breaks to get gas and use the restrooms, away.

My appreciation for this technology has been enhanced by recurrent situations lately when I have answered the telephone to be asked for help with directions.The niftiest piece of this is sitting here in Texas with a Michigan map pulled up on my home computer while giving my daughter directions to get around campus during orientation week, at a time when the busses are sometimes stopping at off-route spots due to temporary road closures for dormitory move-in days. It allows me to feel useful, something a Mommy appreciates with such grown up children in the family.

Aside from family, I also had a chance to give a friend directions to find the Equality Texas offices here in town recently. The ET building is tricky to locate the first time around. Due to an unfortunate tendency for their offices to serve as a target for vandalism, they have no overt signage out in front. Until you "know" where they are, it can be a daunting task to find them. Again, with the use of the internet, I was able to guide my friend to their offices as well as give her their phone number so she could alert them she was on the way and running a bit late.

I am happy for the enhanced capabilities to find my way around, and past that, to be able help others find their way around when navigating in unfamiliar territory. If only the technology were so helpful with the other directions our lives might take....

Being lost or finding our way. It is all so very close together, such a narrow difference between one and the other. The territory never changes, only the feelings of comfort and confidence in our perception of control over navigating our way there.


Lost and Found

Lost when
the earth (in the
upper right corner)
turns its graphic
dance above the blank
white screen marked
searching
and out from cyber
ether comes
the unknown zone
Found when
my wife the one
of us with any
sense of direction
says No, Dear, left
and I wonder
if
hands on the wheel
straightening
out on the new
road she might be
right and
she is and
we are not lost

Gerry McFarland
Seattle