Flat World

Last Saturday I drove to Illinois to officiate at a family wedding. Naturally, I made my plans for this long haul and took along Thomas Friedman's, The World is Flat, a book on CD (7 in all). And yes, it was hours of boring fun.










I did enjoy Friedmans' analysis of the world in which we live...how the world has grown smaller and we now live in a world that has become flattened by technology, immediate communication, and markets that cross national boundaries with great ease. In essence, it ain't your momma's world no more! We have to grow up and face the fact that the world is a much smaller place than a generation ago, and the competition for the world's resources is incredibly keen, and we must relearn all that we had taken for granted only a generation ago.








There are, of course, a great many things that have flattened over this same expanse of time. My spine, for example. It's flattened. I'm about an inch shorter than I used to be. My feet have flattened, too. They are now about as wide as they used to be long. And my mind has flattened. I can't remember where I ate yesterday, and that was at Hardee's! God help me if I go to McDonald's. I won't remember how to order from the value menu at Wendy's either. Come to think of it, Friedman may not be onto anything novel here. Everything flattens over time. Except my waistline!