FOX News reported this morning that Radio Shack terminated 400 employees...BY E-MAIL!!! Yes, 400 hundred employees reported to work to find that their inbox advised them of the unfortunate news. Forgoing the “pink slip”, Radio Shack execs chose to guide these employees to the information superhighway to the Unemployment Office.

Could you imagine being fired by e-mail? Not only is it cold and impersonal, but it’s just wrong. What’s happened to the personal touch in this country? Too often we sit at a drive-thru speaker or on a cell phone rather than speaking to a person. Probably 95% of major corporations have computers answering their phones rather than a person. We either call or e-mail the person in the office next to us. Have we lost our minds or just gotten crazy?

I obviously don’t despise technology and the ease that it can bring for us. But the ease that it brings comes with a cost. We’ve lost our interpersonal relationship skills. We now go online to date rather than trying to meet someone at the library or the grocery store... (or the singles club, who am I kidding). The Yellow Pages slogan was “reach out and touch someone”. Now we’re lucky if we even see that person, must less shake their hand.

Humans were created as social creatures. We are made to need other people. We need human interaction to thrive. Babies that don’t receive physical touch within the first 36 hours of life tend to have development issues. (This may not be solid fact, but the point’s made.) We need each other.

So if your mom lives in town, don’t just email or call...GO SEE HER! Invite your neighbor to dinner. Introduce yourself to the person in line in front of you. If there’s someone around you when you’re reading this article, invite them to read it as well and then have a face to face conversation about it.

Okay, I’m done. WAIT?!?!? WAS THAT MY INBOX?!?!?!? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Don’t like it? Well, you’ve still got that right...

God Bless,
Doug

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering." – St. Augustine