So much is on my mind lately

but I'm drawing a blank as to what I want to tell you. I think it's something to do with writing, and creativity, and becoming a presence in the world while at the same time staying connected to love and friends. Is it possible? Can we make this work over the internet?

I continue to be influenced by The Daily Rumpus, and I'm really amazed by the creative thought that's piling behind eBooks, which we all speculate will eventually replace the hard copy. Or maybe not. In any case, what I wonder about is the loss of physicality. Music is becoming data, books are becoming data, relationships are becoming ... data? Maybe not.

I think about oil, how it seemed like a good idea at the time because it fulfilled a need. It fostered progress, although progress was just another word for something different. I had this college teacher who pointed out that most utopian visions of the future are simply memories of the past. Meaning that technological innovation is about getting something back that has been lost, but was it ever lost? The thing about oil is we're now stuck with it. Even if we change our energy sources, we still have a vast need for energy. We've created a world that's focused around one idea - the idea of cheap, infinite energy.

And then there's these iPads and iPickles and iPeople. We're creating another world, but one that's built around the idea of virtual relationships, of text over voice, of distance not being an obstacle (is it?), of broadcasting our children's baptisms on Youtube so that our Venezuelan relatives can watch. Of living in one place, and talking in another.

The thing is, I want to be close to you. I think all the time about raising children in a world that uses Facebook to build friendships. We don't know how to tell our children what's appropriate to say online and what is better said in person because we don't know the rules ourselves. Moreover, we are so very enticed by virtual relationships. They feel somehow easier, less risky, more structured and planned. What I want to say is: How do we make sense of wanting things that eventually we won't want anymore? I know I've said something like this before: How do we make sense of the things that move us?

Have I mentioned that I'm pregnant?