Without Facebook

OK, seriously, we have gotten into hugely lame territory with this one, I get it.  But I had a bit of an epiphany about this and I wanted to share, because I'm part of a generation that's obsessed with that kind of feel-good, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic stuff, and this sentence has taken a weird turn, and SHUT UP YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE.

Anyhoodles.  Last night I was reading a review of Joanna Newsom's latest album.  Incidentally, I cannot make up my mind whether I think Joanna Newsom is crazy, or a genius, or just so totally insufferable and pretentious and into herself that she gets her kicks inflicting her atonal wackitude on all us unsuspecting plebes, or what.   Reading the review made me think of my friend Shiloh, who was nice enough to let me stay with her for five whole weeks when I was in Australia two years (!!) ago, because she had "The Bear and the Unsuspecting Plebe" or whatever Joanna Newsom's last album was called.

If I hadn't given up Facebook for Lent, I would have posted the link to the article on her wall, and said I was thinking about her.  Instead, oh my gosh you guys, you know what I did?  I prayed for her instead.  I know, super holy, right?  Yeah, totally not about that at all.

Here's the thing about social media and blogs and all that stuff.  What a distraction.  I mean, don't get me wrong: instantaneous communication is really cool.  I think it's kind of incredible that my friend Miranda told me that our friend Kate had given birth to baby Alex within hours of the event (on my birthday!), when that same communication would have taken weeks just a couple generations ago.  But because I can click over to google chat right now and talk to people on three continents the second they pop into my head, I often forget that God often gives us those moments of suddenly thinking of someone so we can learn to be faithful to pray.  I'm hoping that prayer -- not sending links or "liking" or commenting on wall posts or whatever -- will be my first impulse by the end of Lent.