Yesterday was one of those days that sometimes happen. Fortunately for me, they are less common in these days of semi-retirement, but they do occur. I was involved in meetings for about four hours, most of it over Zoom. Since the start of the pandemic, virtual meetings have become a part of life. I’ve had meetings over Zoom that took place when all of the participants were in the same building. Yesterday, however, two hours of the meeting were part of the meeting of the board of directors of a national organization. Participants were in four different time zones. The pandemic has made that type of meeting more efficient than was the case in prior years. I served on the board of the same organization years ago, when a meeting of the board involved two days of travel for me. Two hours yesterday and two more today is a much smaller commitment of time. I probably would not have agreed to serve on that board if it still involved multi-day in-person meetings. One of the decisions made during the meeting is that we will have an in-person meeting a year from now, in January of 2024. The meeting will be added to another meeting so that many members would already be traveling to the meeting site. Still, attending that meeting will take a substantial investment of time. I’m pretty sure that it will be the sole focus of a week of my time.

Yesterday, I not only attended the board meeting, but also attended meetings that are relevant to the life of our congregation and its programs for this week. Despite the two-hour online meeting, I was able to have a varied day with face-to-face meetings, a nice walk outdoors, and time for some professional writing and preparation for two groups that I will be facilitating today.

Of course that means that I have two hours of board meeting and two hours of small groups - all over Zoom - today. I also teach a class on Saturday that involves four hours on Zoom.

If you had told me even a few years ago that i would be spending half of my working time in a week sitting in front of a computer monitor, I would not have been able to believe it. My life has been working with people and that has meant lots of face-to-face time. I didn’t go into the ministry because of a love of technology, or a desire to have a camera recording my face for hour after hour.

But here we are. The hardware and software are familiar to me. I know the login credentials for four different Zoom accounts. I have gigabit fiber optic Internet in my home. I also have studio lighting at my desk. I pay attention to the background when I log on. I have a closet with an array of shirts in bright colors. I have been known to put on a dress shirt and a tie while wearing jeans.

Fortunately so far, I have not felt the need to wear makeup. If that comes, I think I will opt out. Some things are taking it too far - then again, I never thought I’d worry about how I looked on camera. Yesterday, during a lull in a meeting, I looked at my computer monitor and decided that I need to get to the barber shop. I was using the computer as a mirror to judge my own appearance.

It is probably time for me to retire again. In 2020, when I retired, I resigned all of my board and committee assignments. Somehow, however, I’ve picked up a host of new ones. I didn’t mean to do it, but here I am and I have to admit that it is the result of decisions I have made, not something that someone else has done to me.

My watch and my phone communicate wirelessly with my computer and they keep track of my screen time each week. What they don’t measure is how much time I spend in front of the screen of another computer that belongs to the church and sits on my desk at work. However, it is common, as was the case yesterday, for me to be using my personal laptop to do research and view documents while I use the office computer for the Zoom meeting. Each week I receive a report on how much time I’ve spend in front of a screen. I’m confident that my screen time report this week will show a dramatic increase. Maybe it will inspire me to stay away from the screens a bit more next week.

Most of the other members of the board that is meeting this week are younger than I. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I am the oldest member of that board. As I noted during the introductions yesterday, I have a guitar that is older than half of the members of the board. Most of those other members are spending a lot more time in meetings and a lot more time online than I do. After all, I’m only working half time, so I have a significant number of hours available to work at the farm, play with our grandchildren, go for walks with my wife, and marvel at the beauty of this place. Listening to the things that are going on in the lives of the other members of the board amazes me with how busy they are. Maybe I was once that busy, but if I was, I certainly was busy in different ways. It sounds like some of the other members of the board have lives that are mostly meetings. I’m guessing that there are those whose screen time is triple mine.

I am estimating that the four hours of this board meeting will mean that I need to put in a couple of extra hours of hands-on work at the church to be ready for Sunday’s activities. That seems reasonable. I’m used to squeezing in a few extra hours from time to time. I’ve never been one to count the hours. I’d be no good at using a time clock. Some days it takes me more time to complete a task than the same task would take other days.

There used to be a popular television advertisement for a car company in which a child said the words “Zoom zoom!” as the car was driven by. I think that’s one of my theme songs these days: Zoom zoom! I’m sure I’ll have to retire again and cut back on all of the meetings. For now, however, I think I’ll just sit back and enjoy the ride: Zoom, zoom!