A two-fer for today’s giveaway.
My good friend Fr. Mark Mossa, S.J., who blogs at GODsTALKed has an excellent piece on the modern concept of friends, vis-a-vis Facebook and Cell phones. Here’s the most interesting clip IMO.
This has got me thinking that, as strange as it might sound, that a good way to reflect on the presence of friends in our lives and, by extension, the presence of God in our lives, is by mining our cell phone “contact” list. There’s a story, indeed a history, of interaction with those people on your contact list that is not necessarily found with people on your friends list. So, if we want to take some time to reflect on the gift of friendship (and family, of course) in our lives, we might well do so by scrolling through our phone’s contact list, and asking questions such as: Why is that person on my contact list?
Agreed! More importantly, why would I have more than one number for that person in my cell phone? Are they in my favorites?
Who are in my favorites anyway?
Marion (my wife)
Jack Ledwon (my boss and pastor)
Patty Spear (my colleague and the youth and young adult minister here)
Mom and Dad
Kathy (my sister)
Crash (my best friend and best man at my wedding)
Jack Collins (my preaching coach and a wonderful Paulist)
Julianne Wallace (my colleague from Buff State)
Ed Koch (my colleague on the North Campus)
Katie Koch (my other colleague on the North Campus)
and Fr. Pat Keleher (the Pastor on the North Campus)
These make sense. They are probably the people I call most and are closest to here. I noticed a few other things.
I have 527 “contacts” in my phone and 1503 “friends” on Facebook. (surprisingly, I can name how I know nearly all of them).
I text message approximately 86 people. Most of them students or close friends and colleagues.
But the people I’m closest to are the ones that I see the most. My wife, work colleagues, students, Catholic Volunteers and assorted friends from NYC who visit.
Fr. Mark’s article is a good perusal of these kinds of habits and so he gets gifted for his giftedness.