Place is Important

My pastor recently told me that place does matter. Land, geography and location are more than just closeness to friends or family or a good job. It is something that seems to be lost in our modern society, or worse, relegated to the status of ‘that crazy tree hugger’. Place does matter.

But we have Facebook and Google and six-hundred television channels to feel close to a place. To be able to visit a place. With the expansion of 3D movies, I have no doubt that the future is not far off where our televisions will be 3D and have smell-o-vision on top of it. We will not only be able to see things on a screen, but be entirely surrounded by them. While this can be awesome and amazing, it won’t be the same as actually being there. There is something about being able to touch that dirt, to stand on those rocks, to splash in that water. There is something about seeing the local people interact and be in that space.

There is no picture, no re-created or bottle smell, no way to truly experience standing in Times Square besides actually standing in Times Square. People say the same thing about the Sistine Chapel. I say the same thing about New York and Skye. You can look at pictures, you can write a thousand words, but it will never quite be the same.

I’m watching a guy at Firestone who is watching his alma mater play college basketball on television. The college is in Kentucky. He just said to me, “Technology is wonderful. I can see my old school play no matter where I live. Except I seem to forget how amazing actually being there really is until I return. All this technology makes going back seem less important when the opposite couldn’t be truer. I suppose it’s the curse of a good thing.”

Cell phones, Facebook, Skype, digital photos, the internet – it all helps me keep connected to New York and to Scotland and to my friends. But it also can create a false sense of intimacy, of connectedness. It makes me think it doesn’t matter where I live.

And it doesn’t.

Except it really does.