My friend KJ Locci was talking about a scene from a film and said, "It's so provincial." I had no idea what the term meant and he explained it to me. This had to be years ago.

This evening, a friend in New York apologized about her terrible e-mail habits. I said half-sarcastically, "Yes I know. You and most everyone else, I'm getting used to it, growing a callous. I'm kidding."

I'd like to think that my reliance on e-mail now as the most important form of communication is provincial to me. I also think that it's safe to say that it's even moreso true when the deepest conversations are not deep at all (instead, repeats of self introductions and the same topic over and over).

I thought back to when I was a high school freshman at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. I never had a problem because I was still speaking to my peers in English.

So if you know me and you send me an e-mail, you're doing something amazingly significant. The term lifeline really comes to mind right about now.