Recently I tried to contact Google.
The comedian Kevin McAleer has a wonderful routine around Google and the feeling that we are all being watched. He said he was in a strange city, walking down the street and pondering this truth. In his typical droll delivery he says he met a woman pushing a baby in a buggy and that the baby looked up at him and said “Goo-goo-le”. The baby smiled and, as McAleer said, he saw its “wee Bluetooth” and knew the baby was warning him so he headed to his hotel, checked in and went to his room. Glad to be there and out of the sight, he closed his door, only to see an illuminated sign with a big red pointer and the words “YOU ARE HERE”!! No escape!!
Anyway, back to my own encounter. Google offered all sorts of suggestions for problems I might have but I was still at a loss so decided to send a message and I searched for the “Contact” tab. It wasn’t easily found and when found, offered me the opportunity to do pretty much everything other than get in direct contact with another human being.
It seems a bit ironic that the search engine that can answer practically any question a person might have, the site that has photos of every street and home in almost all the world, the tool used to give directions to even the most remote address doesn’t give us even the opportunity to send an email or make a call to someone that might help.
I’ll remember this the next time a parishioner says to me “You’re a hard man to get”!!