Welcome to the Technology Connection Age

I forayed into the world of LinkedIn, which led me to connect with long lost friends. It also, finally led me to enter into Facebook, which I avoided for some unknown reason. I also signed up for Twitter, not really sure what I can do with it.

Any way, the amazing power of these tools lead me to three friends from college, none of whom I have seen or really heard from in the last 20 to 30 years. This has been a real gift. It has brought me back to those times in the 70's. Sure the pictures on these sites show middle aged guys, baldness and gray, but the minds and topics still seem like those of guys in their 20's.
I remember sitting around late at night talking. There were dreams of climbing mountains, and one of us actually did! There was talk of using our artistic talents as our careers. We have all done it in one way or another, but probably not as directly as we hoped or expected.
The years did not dull the connections. If anything the experiences of the 30 year gap may have made things easier to understand.

I remember in college, my one friend telling me he had become quite religious and had changed his name. I had the hardest time adapting to the new name and asked him if he would excuse me if I slipped and called him by his old first name. It seemed so mysterious. Now though, it seems so normal. After 30 years our worlds have broadened. The world is full of all types of names, looks and backgrounds, but deep down we are still the same people. Diversity makes is better. 30 years ago, would we have rallied around a president with a name like Barack Obama? We should all have pride about how our minds have opened instead of closing over 30 years.

So, hopefully soon, the four of us will get together face to face, the old fashion way. I'm sure there will be awkwardness about that 3 decade time warp, but I expect soon we will be talking about things as easily as we discussed the relative merits of Steve Grogan, as some new silly show called Sports Center played in the background on the TV.