We all must be terribly thankful for the most beautiful days of Spring that have arrived. The perennials are quickly pushing themselves out of the ground thanks to the rain we received of late as well as the life giving rays of sun. I toured a flower garden this morning that left me nearly breathless by the size of it and the many days of hard work extended. The owner was a bit disturbed by the amount of destruction the rabbits caused with a number of young fruit trees. Between the explosive population of rabbits as well as the deer in our area, I made it quite clear to some recently that the residents of our fair city will be disappointed in the amount of damage that’ll be done to their flower and vegetable gardens this season compliments of the rabbits and deer.
Someone who’s remained distanced from the internet since its beginnings began asking me questions about how people get information about listings online. Since she was about as naive as one could get regarding the whole concept of the internet, I found myself doing a sort of full shotgun blast that took about a half hour to explain. It’s funny when one thinks about attempting to explain something that we’ve taken for granted for so many years as well as the ability to teach ourselves more and more without even realizing it. I seemed to be able to explain quite a bit of the basics by referring to the internet as a virtual library filled with thousands of books containing volumes of information that are updated daily. She said, “You mean you can actually ask this virtual library a question and get an answer?” I replied “Yes, but you must be careful to verify the answer by a cross-referencing of sorts.” I went on to tell her that the big rage is the social media that is contained within this virtual library which would be likely in a section of it classified as Current Events. I was quite proud of myself in getting her to understand in a very simplistic sort of way the very basics of the internet. I’m sure with the answers given will create even more questions in the future. She’s recently retired and her job didn’t require any sort of computer skills and what evidently kept her away from becoming familiar with the internet was something a banker told her regarding the evils of being online. Likely that banker placed a terrifying fear in her mind that stuck.
On the flip side of my conversation with this person, I happened to remember a visit I had some months ago with a woman who is an exceptionally avid reader. She said once, “Whenever I read a book, I read absolutely everything contained and if I like the author, I attempt to read everything he or she has written.” It may sound strange, but this woman is quite accomplished on the internet but refuses to use it any more than necessary to carry on with her life. Her favorites are turn-of-the-century authors who worked very hard to create visuals in their writings. She went on to say, “Sometimes when reading something well written, I feel as though I’m there listening and watching the dramas unfold.” Those words were quite inspiring in that she developed her reading skills to the point of crawling right into the books and enjoying every moment.
Yes it’s true. Books are our windows to the worlds of others.
