WHEN YOU GET UP TOMORROW, WHAT WILL COUNT?

The once-upon-a-time America known for its long lazy Tom Sawyer adventures through long lazy countrysides has changed. And you and I with it. Today nothing's lazy, everything's fast. News... scores...stock markets ... the Hollywood & Washington players. We want our information immediately, whenever and wherever we are. And now we've got the magic screens with us to get it!

As your therapist might say: How's that make you feel? We've been so busy becoming digitally timely about everything, have we stopped much to wonder how much of this we really need? There's the Timely (headlines, breaking news, back-stories) and then there's the Timeless (holy books, great literature, poetry). If you care to look at it this way, well there's really no contest.

Here, let me give you an example. A few headlines from this morning's tabloid: Paterno fired! GOP Debate Focuses on Economy Not Cain! Voter's Nose Nearly Bitten Off! Woman Gets 34 Years For Killing Teen! Dow Collapses On Italy's Troubles! Cheap Trick Moving to Record Row! Murphy Furious with Oscars! Cutler Learns to Smile!

With all due respect to the reporters, how important are any these reports to you? How likely are you to use or remember them a week from today? In other words, is "being timely" just another way of saying "here today gone tomorrow?" You know that old if-you-were-stranded-on-an-island-what- reading-material-would-you-want-with-you?

Chances are, not even these reporters would vote for their Tabloid. And so enter the timeless...

Kahlil Gibran: "If you love somebody let them go, for if they return they were always yours; if they don't, they never were." Emily Dickinson: "Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels or believes." Buddha: "Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship." Mark Twain: "A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval."

Then there's the Bible's timeless take on being timely: "And this too shall pass..."