From the director

What’s most important to you?

You shall love your neighbor (Mark 12:31b)

If you had a fire in your home and you had 15 minutes to grab a few things, what would you take?  What most people miss after a fire or other disaster is usually not money or stock certificates but photos — the picture of their parents or loved ones — or their mother’s handkerchief or other special mementos.  That’s why victims in Hurricane Katrina and other recent hurricanes are so devastated. They want more than anything to recover the pictures of their children, their parents, their spouses and significant others and their siblings.  The things that are not easily replaced are the things that help us to connect to our friends and loved ones. So what’s most important to you ... pictures of family and friends, memory books of happy occasions, birth records and baptismal certificates, a letter from a loved one who has long since departed, a video of a special occasion?

While some of our loved ones have departed, we still have a chance to connect regularly to our friends and loved ones who are still within our reach.  While it’s hard for some of us to keep up with new technology, some of the new technologies allow us to stay in touch with people who are halfway across the world, often in a matter of seconds.  Even though a computer, to some, seems impersonal, a computer is a handy tool that, in some ways, replicates the human brain and allows us to express our thoughts and talk with others.  What many of us value most about advances in technology, if you think about it, seems to be the opportunity to connect to another person.  That’s what’s most important to us.