I don’t think connections via technology are easy unless you work hard at the discipline of connection. That said, they have all the possibilities (and many of pitfalls) of F2F (I couldn’t help myself, face-to-face) conversations.

After yesterday’s musing, I called my friend Lorraine. Our lives have been more apart than together, and yet our friendship has been foundational to both our lives since it started 44 years ago. When we get to be together, sure there’s catching up to do, but mostly it’s about refamiliarizing ourselves with one another’s physical presences… noticing how we’re aging. We’ve been apart during one another’s cancers and the deaths of our parents. But we’ve never really been far from one another. The telephone, the internet, and maybe facebook (because Lorraine is slow and cautious on FB) are what we have. To label it “not enough” would mean that we would have to let go of the friendship. Because I’m probably not moving to Sweden any time soon and she’s probably not moving to Lewisburg.

So it is what it is. We have what we have, and we can revel in it, or release it. Nope. not letting go.

Here in Central PA, there are religious sects who refuse technology because they feel it interrupts community. One the one hand, I completely understand what they’re talking about. They live slowly. Chores are shared and lives are lived in tandem. (and from what you see at market, there’s no shortage of cake!). I understand the allure of such a life, but for me, that’s a harkening back to the past. I’ve always been more interested in figuring out how to bring the past into where we are. Because you can’t really stuff progress back into a bottle. It happens and it’s both enriched and impoverished life.

But it’s up to us, it seems to keep it rich, isn’t it? So If FB or Skype or even that old telephone is what we have, let’s use it. Let’s enjoy one another. Understanding the importance of friends and friends everywhere, allows us to make more friends. It allows us to stay connected. Cherishing those connections hopefully helps us keep reaching out.

One of the telephone companies’ ad used to be “Reach out and touch someone.” Yes, indeed. Do that very thing. Call one another consciously. How do you stretch your circle? How do you convince yourself to make time for Peace? Because Peace is a slow process.

We need to make the space. We need to use the tools available. The world depends on us. So does Peace — slow, connected Peace.

As I age, I believe less in finding Meaning than in making meaning. What I focus on is where my meaning emerges… and it’s important (for me) to focus on the positive, so that what I’m seeing is possibilities.

I’m always taken aback when people are despairing of the world. It’s not that there aren’t bad things that happen, it’s that the more we focus on the Good, the more of that we see and perhaps most importantly, the more of that we DO. We become empowered as agents of the good. If I work to raise money for Staten Island, will that stop war in Syria?

It’s a very distant connection to be sure, but I can’t do much about Syria, and I do know how to do something about people here. not much perhaps, but a little. and so, I do. And that becomes the spot where I make my meaning.

We must, as… was it Jimminy Cricket who said this: Accentuate the positive!

At the risk of anthropomorphizing here — and oh, how we love to do that —I’m quite caught by the notion of both Peace and March being represented by Lions and Lambs. In depictions of March they’re at odds with one another. In the somewhat naive illustrations of Peace, they’re cuddle buddies. They are animals, they have animal nature, one is a predator and one is not. Never was the refusal to understand that clearer to me than at seminary, when students would bring their cats out into the enclosed garden and be dismayed when a cat, being a cat, would find a rodent and positively delight in the kill. Somehow, I believe that my seminary colleagues believed that their cats were going to seminary too, instead of being, well, cats.

So maybe what we Peaceseekers need to envision is something that is neither horrifying nor saccharine; something perhaps more realistic. Lions exist (although humans need to be doing a lot more to protect them.) Lambs exist. And a wonderful world is where they are both celebrate for who they are and we don’t confuse animals with humans. The Animal Kingdom and the Human Species are set up differently. When gathered into an open environment, we don’t need to be overcome by our need to hunt and kill. Humans can reach across boundaries and make life work. Humans can make Peace between us and with the animals. March seems like a good month to consider that.