It took me years to finally carry a cell phone. I still struggle with understanding how being always available to others is desirable. To me, social networks, blogs, and smart phones seemed clever, but unnecessary and time consuming. True, I would feel small pangs of guilt when family and friends would tell me that the world was leaving me behind, but I felt I could live with that, so long as Harley Davidson motorcylces did not change too much or too fast. Besides, I could use Google and send e-mails. How much more connected did I need to be?

Then one day I read that the Pope was getting into Facebook and Twitter. I thought if this 80+ year old man, who generally is not known for recklessly racing ahead into modernity, is staying current with technology and society, then I better rethink my attitudes.

So, here I go. This is my first blog.

I hope to learn rapidly and to become adapt at this new, fangled blogging thing. Of course, I suspect as soon as I have learned enough to be considered a competent blogger, the whole "new media" thing will have yet again remade itself, and I will find myself returned to being comfortably old-fashioned.