Near Cape Spear, the easternmost point of continental North America, you can find St. John's, Newfoundland. From there you can be one of the first to observe the sunrise from North America. Overlooking St. John's is a historical site known as Signal Hill. It was here in 1901 that Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. What once took an enormous amount of planning and cost to send and receive a tiny message from Europe now happens multitudes of times every second, covering much greater distances with enormous amounts of information at an inexpensive rate.

We live in the instant. Human interconnectedness has increased across the globe. On my phone, I can get news of protest marches happening in Cairo, Skype with someone in Tokyo, and receive e-mails from Bangladesh—simultaneously. We move in the moment. A person can physically be anywhere on the planet within forty-eight hours. Safer and more efficient air travel, better road systems, and automobiles, trains, and boats have shortened the distances between the peoples of the world. Globalization has resulted in an accelerated, compressed, and intensive way of life for many. All areas of life including economics, religion, family dynamics, and education have been affected by this pressure point.