Up North

Here at Telemark in the ski-lodge setting we are not skiing. We are not even outside. Instead, we are viewing the virtual world at a conference on using technology in the congregation. We talked with someone in Africa without leaving our chairs. We entered a virtual church, but we only looked around - we didn't stay and virtually worship.
Soon, however, we will leave for home and drive through winding forest roads where the leaves are turning their brilliant colors, where the smells of damp fallen leaves are carried on the breeze. Deer will peer at us from ditches. Bears will hear the sound of our motors and stay deep in the forest, in their own virtual world that we seldom share with them.