EXTENSION LADDERS TO HEAVEN? JUST SAY YES!

The New York Times cannot contain its enthusiasm about tech gifts--none of them any less than $500 a crack. I don't mind suggestions and I don't even mind giving out an apple or two at Christmas ( to go with the orange and the anthracite) however avast ye miss the greatest revelation of all:

"MY DEVICE, MYSELF" (UNDERLINE THAT)

"They are glass, plastic, and silicone. They aren't sentient, (Hal will really cost you) and yet our smartphones and tablets are increasingly becoming an extension of us."

(end of statement-- is it under- or over-statement?)

My first thought was, well, a potato masher is an extension of many of us. Yet I never use one. And life goes on.

Rocks and sticks continue to be important extensions of ourselves, and in some areas of the world, people use little else--well, maybe a little hemp... but ONLY to tie the rock to the stick you understand. Thus was the first guitar invented. Now we even have an "Ax Church". All of them extensions of people, not the extentable psuedopodia of the amoeba that supposedly started this whole mess. Amoebas with nuclear weapons, there's a thought!

Do I belabor the obvious? Well of course. I thought I would take a vacation from being entirely obscure.

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For the second time we "extended" our vacation with family to include a short visit to Milledgeville GA, this time to take the tour of Flannery's actual home. They still have three peacocks (actually one peacock and two peahens); no longer free range but penned. Sad. But we bought a made-for-TV version of her story, "The Displaced Person," which as some may recall is the short story of an immigrant family from Poland to the South as an aftermath of the War. It ends badly of course, but the 80 year old priest steals the show. Henry Fonda does the introduction and there is a whole series of these by other authors--ho, Dennis!

This film was actually made at Andalusia, the farm/home of Flannery and her mother Regina; Regina seems to be a bit like the somewhat unsympathetic widow trying to run the farm with residential blacks and transient-intransigent whites. Well you write what you know.

Unfortunately I have read all her stories at least once so no new stories; but I have now the final chunk of letters, many of which were not included in the admirable and timely New American Library edition of collected works. Sally Fitzgerald, a good Catholic friend and writer compiled what we have available into a large book, "The Habit of Being". Not as many as the letters of C.S. Lewis or TSE--3 volumes apiece--so I have a fighting chance to finish these too--eventually. Some of her comments will undoubtedly invade my writing and those few of you that remain may be further exposed to her "causticity", if there is such a word. (There otta be)

By the fly, there is going to be a major FO'C conference at Loyola in Chicago, next Oct. See you there? Ralph Wood, one of Stephen's teachers at Baylor and a prolific author, will be one of the main spealers (did I just say that?)

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Kudos and an old fashunned back slap to Dennis Hall. Jean spilled the beans in her Christmas letter and states that Dennis has been given an actual Apple laptop and he is as happy as a baker's dozen of clams. Other than Keziah and Alathea, I guess I'm the only holdout, I still don't have a laptop. I have been holding out not because I am a Luddite but because I figure at least some of them have gotten more sturdy, lower in price, and more user friendly. Also because I'm cheap and I like to borrow other people's stuff.... We are however getting my mother her own apple--so far she has only "core" techabilities but she is a teachable spirit for sure.

(I guess a hillbilly with an IPhone would be a Techabilly) Tetchin' , ain't it ?