It Would Be An Endangered Species, If It Were A Species

There was a time in the not too distant past where people took the time to Stare...

• After signing in to a doctor’s office we sat down with a Worried Stare.
• After signing into the DMV we sat down with an I’m Never Going to Get out Of Here Stare.
• As the passenger in an automotive vehicle we Stared at the Road. (Actually I wish drivers would return to staring at the road.)

How things have changed. With very few exceptions we no longer stare at anything. We now pull out an electronic device and we peck away in our own private World of Distraction.
If Staring were a species it would be on the verge of being placed on the Endangered Species List. Actually it will probably never make the list. It is going to go direct to the Extinct Species List in the not too distant future.

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There is a good kind of Staring that appears to be alive and well. Have you ever noticed how parents Stare at their babies? At some point the babies probably start thinking about why those people who are constantly staring at them are not pecking at their devices.

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As the economist said after giving sound economic advice about a sound economic course of action, “On the Other Hand”...
On the other hand, pecking at a device just might be a form of Staring. I came to this realization while I was in church recently.
Sister Mary Grinyon taught us that is was a Mortal Sin to not go to church on Sunday.
I certainly understand that Mortal Sins were placed on the Extinct List years ago but there were 3 children in the foyer of our church that would have been on the precipice of an Awful Mortal back in the old days.
I had occasion to be in the foyer of church for an extended period waiting for someone. Please understand that the foyer is a long way from what is going on in the church itself. The whole time I was back there these little “worshipers” in the picture below were curled up in three easy chairs staring at and pecking at their smart phones...

When their parents returned from their weekend trip to the mountains and asked if they had gone to church, their children would have looked them straight in their adoring eyes and said, “Yes we did”. Their parents would certainly be proud and content in the knowledge that their little darlings were growing into the strong Catholics that they had always hoped they would be.
Parents are easily fooled but Sister Mary Grinyon would have known the truth (she always did).
If these 3 “churchgoers” were all killed in the same car wreck, they better hope their lawyer was in that car with them. That way, when they got the Pearly Gates, he will be there in order to argue their case for immediate entrance and get them into heaven on a technicality...

Your Honor, it’s Peter, is it not?, my 3 clients were in church. If they were not there, they would not have been there but they were physically not present so they were technically there. Open up!

Would I kid u?
Smartfella
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