Palm Sunday and changing times...

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and times have definitely changed. Palm Sunday was a big deal in my family especially for my grandmother. We'd have to go to bed early to make sure we were well rested for service (church) the next day. We'd have special outfits (to differentiate from any other Sunday of course) and we HAD to come home with "the palms".
My grandmother would stay home to cook Sunday lunch, while we went to church. Automatically I was suspicious. Why were they dressing US up and sending us (my cousin and I) to church? Sometimes my grandmother would go on a Saturday but WE had to go on Sunday mornings. It was so ceremonial that I thought "they have to be prepping us for sacrifice" (yeah, I definitely read too much into the Bible stories), and what was so important about those palms anyway?

(Google Images)

My grandmother STRESSED that we HAAAAAAD to bring home those palms. It was almost implied that if we didn't get get one, we might as well sleep in the church. So my cousin and I would walk to church, and I was ready! When I got there, I didn't care if I had to fight the priest, I was leaving there with a palm. (Luckily there was enough for everybody)...but that is a tradition that has since faded in my family.

And I was talking to my sister today about letters. Noone really writes letters or sends cards anymore. A card store near to my home recently closed down because I probably was the only customer! I would walk in and there'd be aisles of beautiful cards and stationery and little cutsie knick-knacks that I couldn't wait for an occassion, any reason to send to someone, to celebrate or just say hi. Now I get e-vites and e-mails and withdrawal symptoms if God forbid Facebook's website was under construction! lol
Calling has now evolved into texting, or facebooking, twittering, or myspacing in and out of this world! Now we're finding so many creative ways to keep in touch that we're over-saturated with applications, literally at our fingertips. The other day I received a text to check my facebook page only to log-in and get a message that could have been texted in the first place.
Now don't misinterpret, I'm a big fan of the social networking sites because I'm only one click away from sooooooo many friends and family members ALL OVER THE GLOBE! So I LOVE it! We laugh & have discussions and meet new people and stay in touch....and it sure beats the line at the Post Office...just as long as we remember that no click on the computer (or phone) could ever replace meeting vis-a-vis! Recently in the news an old lady died in her home and noone even knew. The autopsy revealed that she could have been dead for over 3 months. How do you not miss someone for 3 months? Didn't she have family? Or friends? Or neighbors?

Simple    human   contact.... After all we don't wanna evolve into I-Robots, now do we?