Yogi, Yankee, and BTK

I've been trying to exercise between five and six days a week. I have a judo class Mondays and Wednesdays, and I am trying to run thirty minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with a longer run on Sundays. My thirty minute jogs take me around the neighborhood and allow me to explore my surroundings. This activity has netted me some friends, specifically two guys who seem to be out walking their dogs, named Yogi and Yankee, at the same time I am running. I saw the owner of Yogi this morning. He informed me that Yogi is missing and asked me if I had seen him. Unfortunately, I hadn't. It seems that Yogi has joined the dozens of other pets whose owners put up "lost" signs all around here. I am sorry that Yogi is missing, but I am glad that his master felt comfortable telling me about him. It makes me feel as though I am part of the his life and he is part of mine, never mind how small that part is. I was reading this evening in the Christian Science Monitor about the BTK Killer in Wichita, KS. A good chunk the article, cited above, is dedicated to an analysis of the increasing anonymity that is pervasive in our society. We spend our lives increasingly behind screens - computer screens, TV screens, ATM machines - separated from "reality" in a cold, anonymous, electronic world. We hardly know our neighbors. The article pointed out that we often have long distance relationships, maintained across wires, that mean more to us than relationships that should be maintained across the street. I am as guilty as anyone. I spend quite a bit of time on the Internet, I am not on intimate terms with the owners of either Yogi or Yankee. I am not sure I even know their names. But I do know them as part of my community. If I saw them in trouble, I'd give them a hand and I am sure they would do me the same favor. I am grateful that I have developed the habit of leaving my little electronic cocoon once in a while and finding out about the world around me, including the people in my neighborhood. Maybe the world will be saved by those of us who get out the door once a day to experience the real world; a world made up of dogs, fresh air, and, here's a radical concept, other human beings! Yogi, get back home, you are part of a community and we care about you.