Published: July 01, 2008 10:56 am         

Getting away from it all, sort of

It’s 11:54 p.m. on Friday, and 37 hours ago I walked away from the known world for three days of camp with 35 high school students and six adults. With a wireless laptop, my plan was to steal an hour or so between commitments and have my column completed by the time I got home. So much for John Steinbeck’s “best-laid plans of mice and men.”

The dorm where I’m staying isn’t equipped for wireless and I can’t check email or tap into the cyber world, leaving me with a strange sensation that something is happening without my knowledge. We also do not have access to a newspaper. Apparently, current news isn’t wanted or even needed on the campus of Vincennes University. Red Skelton would be shocked.

This evening, a thunderstorm passed over the campus and an attempt was made to secure a weather update with my cellphone. Like E.T., though, I phoned home to ask my wife to check the weather channel for us. However, she had her cellphone turned off. Rats! What good is a cellphone that isn’t connected?

My eldest daughter phoned but she couldn’t tell me what was up because she had taken her children to the park. Although I enjoyed hearing the voices of two grandchildren I haven’t seen in three months, the information we wanted, needed even, was out of reach.

The good news is that the storm passed over without incident. No tornado touched down, no lightning bolt struck and the wind blew without damage. Still, no news. For all we know, another 9-11 could have taken place, or Congress could have increased taxes again or IU could have released its athletic director (some news still travels by word of mouth).

Ever notice how glued we have become to technology? Truth is, though, its absence has been refreshing. In the age of information, a lack thereof has been like a long cleansing breath.

We did experience one aborted emergency that required the use of technology: a smoke detector went off in the middle of the night because a curling iron was not turned off. As girls began to file out of their rooms and exit the dorm, I reached for my iPod, rolled over and went back to sleep. The soothing tones of John Barry’s “Dances With Wolves” and “Out of Africa” drowned out the chatter and slamming doors.

Jesus often felt the need to get away from the demands of his daily grind. “Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31, NIV).

One exception to our brief odyssey without technology was a cellphone check for an update on the Cincinnati Reds. We lost tonight, 6-0, to the Cleveland Indians. Now there’s some news I could have done without.

Tony Thomas is a church pastor, a high school basketball coach and author of “A Smidgeon of Religion.” He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com