Have you read the news?

I know that this is the electronic age. We should not need a written page to conduct business, catch up on the news or enjoy a book. We can plug in, switch on, dial in, or any number of other new phrases in order to live our daily lives. It is possible, but I find it less satisfying.

I was gone for a week at an Elderhostel where I met 50 very interesting people, each with a different life story to share. I enjoyed it but I couldn't help wondering about what was going on at home where the life stories of some people very close to me were happening.

I was eager to get back on Friday night to read our own newspaper and feel that I was still a part of this life also. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and couldn't find any newspapers at all. I assumed Lester had stacked them somewhere for me and I would soon find them. Not so. By a quirk in the circulation department none of our papers had been delivered for the whole week I was gone. I couldn't even find out who had died, or what big decisions had been made at various local meetings.

The worst thing was, I couldn't catch up on the funny papers or do my crossword puzzles. When they do get all of my papers to me I will be able to cheat on the crossword puzzles by looking at the next day's page for the answers. But that isn't nearly as much fun as having to wait to find that one stubborn clue that I couldn't solve.

Of course I don't have to cheat. I could just keep on puzzling over each days' puzzle until I get it filled in, like I would do if I received them one day at a time. I think you know my answer to that. When I have that many papers to read all at once I begin to want to get through them all and spending an extra five minutes on one clue doesn't seem too practical.

I will eventually get caught up on the local news, and Alley Oop probably didn't get around to rescuing Oola in just one week anyway. But having this lack of news hit me just as I arrived home made it very clear to me. I am not ready to go completely into the electronic age. I could have googled nevadadailymail.com and gotten some of the news I wanted. I could have brought up the obituary section of the paper but it wouldn't have had the impact of turning a page and seeing the name of a dear friend.

I'm not even sure that the electronic systems actually save as much paper as they say. When I get something over the Internet that is interesting or that I need to remember for sure, I usually print it out. It's easier to dig through the stack of papers on my desk than to turn the computer on and try to trace down exactly where and when I received that specific e-mail.

When I am home I often play a game or two on my computer each time I use it for business or correspondence. I enjoy those games when I win at Free Cell, or finally beat Pauline in Hearts. But at the Elderhostel we played games around a table, or in a circle with real people and you could share their laughter and see their faces. I didn't miss the Free Cell at all.

But I did miss my local newspaper. A day just doesn't seem finished until I have gotten a little black on my hands from turning pages of our own paper.

Besides, I want to read my own articles on the Senior Page and see if they read as good as I thought they were when I wrote them a week ago!