The Facebook question

Facebook. Is it a time waster? Or simply a new way to keep in touch in our busy world?

It’s interesting to keep up with friends – one in PA directs plays; another in MA writes novels; a retired English teacher has taken up painting; others in CO and CA travel to interesting places and share their photos; a former Sunday School student ran a race in the mountains and is feeling sad because he didn’t place well.

The photos and activities of the teens and twenty-somethings who have let me be their “friend” amaze and delight and sometimes startle me.

If I know what’s going on, I can send a line of appreciation, encouragement, cheer. Or maybe just pray about the "startling" part.

But tonight when a friend wrote, “I’ve been crying,” I picked up the phone and called. I didn’t find out why she had been crying, but we had a good talk.

The jury is still out on the value of Facebook in my life. But it has gone up a notch on my usefulness scale.