INstant Communication, sticks with you how long...

Okay, the earthquake moved from New Zealand to Japan and continues to send shockwaves across the ocean, 500 mph that is never the speed of the water, that is the speed of the wave. So my wife wonders about Hawaii, I have to call my son and find out. So I get out my trusty cell phone, turn it on (no, I don't leave it on, don't check messages, don't want to bother folks so it is normally OFF). The system works as needed and I talk to my son, find out things are fine where they are, Maui and the Big Island had some effects. He is in Honolulu. My wife listens and is pleased that everyone is fine. Every disaster on television is more evidence to her that the End of the World is at hand.

The picture of my parents, as they started life together shows people I would never meet. Oh, I lived with, was raised by, loved and tolerated by, and made them proud occasionally, but the people in this picture were so much younger in every respect from my parents. They have departed, gone on to join the long line of ancestors that walked before, yet pieces of them stay - parts of my siblings' faces, mannerisms, views of life love and liberty. My father had exactly the same problem I did as a young married man, when he had a real terrible argument with his wife she couldn't go back to her parents until it cooled off. They were in South America, mine had hers in Korea -- so I guess he and I did the best we could with women that were as strong in what they believed as we were in what we believed. The rumbles were often heard, but the shock waves never did the destruction I have seen elsewhere. One of my long time ago friends came by one day, said he had lived on the same street with his wife, gone to school with her, dated and courted and until they were married and had tried to live in the same house he had no idea she was that way. I never asked, I only thought the wonder of the world is all the surprises along the journey.

The important conversations stick with you long after a moment when time stopped, the quick chatty text or voice or email, touches you but is almost instantly gone...