“…we supplement and complete one another, each one making up in himself for the lack in another.”
– excerpt from Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

One evening the phone rang: a friend read a column in the New York Times and thought I might like the notion of it. After hunting up the article on-line, I had to agree, although I’ve pretty much written along this line for years about real connection and how we need it, despite all our technological connections. Can’t say it often enough, and it looks like the big-city guy’s on the same page. Go figure.
Smart phones, computers, i-Pads, i-Pods, i-Things of all kinds. All good, but you cannot, I repeat, you cannot replace the touch, the voice, the simple human need for other human contact. To look one another in the eye, to have that connection from one to another. We thrive on it. We’re hungry for it. Going out into the world, even if it’s down to our small town main street for a cup of coffee, to go in stores to shop, chat, visit a minute…to enjoy a simple park bench sit-down watching the world go by, a lingering stroll along the sidewalk: it feeds that primal need to connect, to see, feel, hear others, to be fully engaged in it all. Personally, I don’t want the world to come to me ALL the time. Sure, it’s great to get a package from Timbuktu, but more satisfying to sally along store aisles locally and hear your name spoken, to support your local folks.
In the New York Times, Nick Bilton writes in his March Bits piece “None of this is news. One of the paradoxes of technology is that it connects us and isolates us at the same time. We get more, faster, but cannot help wondering if that is always better. We have more to read and more to watch, more to learn and more to transact, more friends and more followers — and yet we can somehow feel less satisfied.”
“On the one hand, there is so much that we are obviously losing by taking shortcuts and moving faster; we lose a kind of solitude and slowness,” said James Gleick, the author of “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood.”
​Saluda Welcome Table is every Tuesday, with dinner served from 5:30-7 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Saluda United Methodist Church. All welcome; donations accepted.

The Robinson Community Garden (sponsored by Saluda Community Land Trust) on Henderson Street is ready for gardeners: next sign-up date is April 10. For information, contact Dave and Marilyn Prudhomme at 828-749-9172 or e-mail dclp@tds.net.

Mark your calendar for the community potluck and bingo evening at Saluda Center, March 31 at 6 p.m.; bring a favorite dish to share.

Stop by Saluda Library and peek at the jade plant on display, maybe spring for a few tickets to win this beautiful plant: it’s going to be raffled at Saluda Community Land Trust’s annual meeting on April 23 (you don’t have to be present to win); proceeds benefit our Saluda Dog Park and new agility course.

Happy March Birthday to: Faye Chandler, Genell Jespersen, Charlene Pace, Valerie Mintz, Sheldon Mintz, Curtis Pace, Anita Odgen Moore, Lloyd Thompson, Charles Weinhagen,   Kevin Kerr, Dorrie McKinnley, Catherine Ross, Jane Fox, Beverly Pickard, Monica Pace, Ken Justus, Elizabeth Justus, Tonya Jackson, Peggy Wolf, Martin Anderson, Lucy Holman and Laura Bass. Add your name to the birthday list! It’s a promise no ages will be mentioned unless you’re under two or over a hundred!

Thank you dear readers, for reading this column! Thank you too, for your on-going feedback, hugs, and pats on the back.
Every one of you is loved and special to me. As ever, the goal is to make you feel like you’re enjoying a front porch visit and small town life in a friendly little mountain town called Saluda.
You can contact me at bbardos@gmail.com; or 749-1153, visit my website at bonniebardos.com for more writing and art, or find me on facebook.