Blurred Faces in Sacred Places Wawa is the name of a convenience store chain in the north-east section of the United States (is it out west too?). You can get chips, soda, batteries, a newspaper, even toilet paper there. And COFFEE. There are those who are addicted to Wawa coffee. I am NOT one of those people, but that coffee is mm mmm good! Now the more I read the Bible and the stories of the saints and that crazy holy Pope John Paul II, the more I begin to see things differently. I can't help it. I can't fight it. The sacramental vision kicks in and I realize we are not alone. Eeeek! We're surrounded by a Supernatural Love. He is everywhere! And everywhere I can find Him, and His angels too, leading and guiding us through our days. The Divine Whisper is just a hair's breadth away from us, if we but bend in to listen... This brings me back to Wawa. The other day I was stopping in for a cup o' joe. I make it a point to try and look the cashier in the eye when I purchase something. Just a little human moment, a little "how you doin' in this great adventure called Life?" Wawa Boy was too quick for me. It was busy and he was kicking out his customers like karate! With cat-like reflexes, he took bills and turned them into change, he bagged and he bopped, with the cashdrawer opening and closing like a hungry hungry hippo (anybody get that reference?) I caught myself slowing down as I approached my turn in the line, a bodily antithesis to his hyperactivity. "Hooow... arrrre... yoooouuuu?" He didn't look up, didn't miss a beat. Zip, ding, "Haveaniceday." I wondered if he was even human. Maybe Wawa has cyborgs working for them now? Half human, half machine. We have the technology now, don't we? Oh what a rush we're in (and let me be the first, again, to say I'm in the vortex). A friend of mine was told once in a "drive thru" McDonald's: "Sorry sir, your fries are going to take about 60 seconds!" They actually apologized. I was in the cathedral downtown once when a man came in on a cell phone. He continued his conversation, loud and clear, up the empty aisle (Mass was over), past Our Lord in the tabernacle, past the shimmering stained glass, and into the side chapel. Blah blah blah. We are blurred faces rushing through sacred places. We all know how insane the world is today. We all know that we are moving too fast. We hardly listen to each other. We have no time for the things that really matter. We know this. What we don't know is how to turn off the Machines. We have so many time-saving devices today... but we have given them all of our time! We can get so much done through e-mail and cell phones, I think we should have a four hour work day and still get paid for eight! WHO'S FOR IT? We're like addicts.... always checking our cell phones and our e-mail. Did someone communicate with me? Do I have any new messages???!!! Many of us spend more time staring at screens, than we do other people. SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG, SOMETHING IS BACKWARDS... A wise monk once said "When eating an orange, eat the orange." And another said .... "By drinking a cup of green tea, I stopped the war." Let's ponder these thoughts. Can we do it? Can we even begin? Let me pick up on this one tomorrow. I gotta run...