A Matter of Faith

Modern technology: the greatest creation in the world?

Courtesy: NASA

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - I bought my wife a GPS for her birthday and it was used when she drove to Portland, Oregon on our annual pilgrimage to visit my family. Darlene was not impressed when we left, but she became a believer.

She was not accustomed to taking orders from an ethereal voice, and I had often to remind her to do as she was told by. We both were disoriented in Portland because we stayed at a motel other than one we were used to, and the device seemed always to be sending us in the wrong direction. Argue as she might, I insisted she have faith in the voice’s direction which, under the circumstances, seemed the wisest thing to do.

It worked; we always arrived at our programmed destination, except that the Motel’s address was off by one digit. It was not the end of the world, however, because we could see the Motel across the road from where we were led.

On another occasion, a road re-alignment confused the issue, and we were treated to a “recalculated” tour via a much more scenic route. My hearing is not too good and street names were unfamiliar, but Darlene’s wholeness got us through with nary a hitch. Her faith was gaining on her.

After guiding us to a restaurant of our choice, in spite of some questioning, Darlene had to admit, as we walked to the car after dinner, that the GPS was quite amazing. It is half the size of a pack of cards, but with a voice of God-like proportion and an incredible sense of direction.

We referred to the device as “it,” but I could not help wondering how that gal with all her knowledge could fit in such a little package. Talk about weird and wonderful: there had to be more to it than we admitted, and I found myself gazing about while saying, “I know you are out there lady, I can hear you breathing.”

There is much more the GPS can do besides talk to you. It tells you the direction in which the car is moving, the speed limit and the speed the car is going which, by the way, is far more accurate than the speedometer which we checked over a measured distance of five miles outside Grants Pass. The speedometer was off by .06% that reduced our overall mpg to 30mpg. It even told us the elevation of our house; roughly 850 feet.

Ours is a GARMIN, sans the Blue Tooth phone compatibility.

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Kenneth G. Ramey was a 79-year old \"writer without a Website\" who is generating excellent, provocative articles on the subject of religion and world affairs. We are pleased that Ken\'s \"lone wolf\" presence as a writer in the world has been replaced by a spot on our team of writers at Salem-News.com. Raised in Minnesota and California during the dark years of the Great American Depression, Ken is well suited to talk about the powerful forces in the world that give all of us hope and tragedy and everything in between. You can write to Ken at: darken1@sbcglobal.net