I no longer run, though at one time I was a cross country runner and did plenty of running or playing basketball after my college years. Other than the benefits of running for health, perhaps the most singular benefit to me was the smells and sounds of the environment. The birds, the cicadas, the kids in the neighborhood, the flowers, the neighbors, the ruckus here and there … the sorts of smells and sounds we encounter out running. But no more…
Today I rarely see a runner who can even hear what he or she might encounter. The ears are plugged with those little iPod insert-into-ear-things. Will these runners learn to recognize God’s birds? I’d rather hear a fussy little wren or a worked-up red-winged blackbird or a baby crying or someone’s horn honking than … who knows what such folks are listening to.
Are you an iJogger or a natureJogger? Ever hear a Sandhill Crane fly by? Nothing like it, nothing.
What’s next? iWalkers are around, but what about iStudents or iTeachers or iPastors or iJudges and iCommuters and iDrivers and iDentists?
What about iDeafness? Is it inevitable?