Extemporaneous existence

Just as quickly as it awoke, the Extemporaneous Elder Council has gone back to sleep for a while. Just like Christa Lilly in Colorado Springs, who wakes up from her coma periodically to join us for some brief time. Something precious exists while such things are awake. It's up to us to notice.

That was the point of this elder council, to notice some of this new technology--computers and the Internet, PDAs and cell phones. We were to take a moment and begin to really notice this stuff--how it works and its place in the world. What can you do with it? What are people saying about it? We barely see the virtual tip of the iceberg.

With constant attention in the press we immediately realize it's all here to stay, affecting our lives and futures in unforeseen ways. We had to balance the abuses and unknowns with positive uses and proven benefits, all the good things we could notice. It's vital to participate, in many ways just to keep up with the world and especially to shape the direction of all this technology.

What if one day this technology of ours wakes up and asks us, "How long have I been asleep?" And what will we say, when it asks, "Well why didn't you wake me up?"

And with that strange thought, the Council says, "Goodnight, for now."