Friday I had to rush a relative to the Emergency Room. While no one in their right mind enjoys an ER experience, nonetheless there are those surprisingly bright spots. And the biggest surprise was … having my iPhone.

Since I’m on a Mac, my sizable list of contacts, developed over the years in the Mac’s Address Book, syncs seamlessly with my iPhone. The result? It has a wealth of helpful medical information and phone numbers with relatively little effort. In fact, getting phone numbers and addresses into an iPhone is much easier than with any other cell phone I’ve had before.

Back to the ER…. Doctors contacted, paperwork done — then the hours of tension-laced tedium set in. We were there for eight hours before being going to Intensive Care. Inevitably, I didn’t have a book with me, and I’m not keen on most TV. Once again, however, my trusty iPhone came to the rescue. I have hours of video and audio podcasts to keep me entertained, and that’s precisely what they did. As it turned out the hospital had wireless too, but for some reason my email choked, and in retrospect, I’m just as glad it did.

The moral of this story? If you have an iPhone, be sure you’ve got contact information not only for your own doctors, but also for doctors of relatives and friends who have asked you to be their emergency support person. There may come a day you will be very glad to have it (however long forgotten) just waiting in your pocket.

Vanderbilt designers converged today from all corners of campus for a first-ever meeting and lunch. I wouldn’t have made the cut, but fortunately the graphic artist at the Cancer Center, the same wonderful person who designed the gray-haired lady featured on this blog’s banner, urged me to come. I’m so glad I did, even if it did give me a slight Alice-in-Wonderland feeling.

I’m used to geeks, and while there was a healthy sprinkling of them too, the predominant theme was art. At one point they started talking favorite Pantones. I was proud to even know they were talking about color. And many of them can draw! One used to be a courtroom artist. Wow.

Even more amazing, over a one hour lunch they decided to set up both a listserv and blog, and by quitting time today, both were in place. Zoom….

If you are a Vanderbilt employee, you can get to the blog here: Vanderbilt Designers Blog. One challenge it creates: I follow blogs via Google Reader, but it doesn’t support password-protected ones. I’m not sure how it will unfold, but I certainly do admire the pluck of these artists willing to dive right into Web 2.0.

Geez louise. I keep forgetting to blog. I read a number of stories over the weekend about bloggers who get so stressed they have heart attacks or worse, but that’s obviously not a problem for some of us. I expect it’s mostly confined to those who are A-list or A-list-wannabes.

What’s the secret to my success … in maintaining blogging health and sanity, I mean? Of all things (at least for now) it’s knitting.

I haven’t knit for almost 30 years. I became moderately proficient at it in my early 20s, but then life (babies, etc.) intervened — plus I don’t like clutter, and crafts are incredibly clutter-inducing.

So what happened? Why the return? I’m not quite sure. A friend mentioned her favorite yarn shop, I happened to be near it the next day, waltzed in, got some yarn, next got a chatty e-newsletter from them, and even signed up for a class.

Now most evenings I can’t wait for a little knitting and Star Trek with Mr. Web Diva. Bliss.

Steve Jobs has a reputation of having it out for Flash. That’s because he won’t put it on the iPhone. As I see it, though, he has some pretty good reasons.

Even though I’m nuts about my iPhone, and love Flash, it simply hasn’t been that big a deal for me, and I sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about. I suspect it’s contextual.

I just did some Flash for my church today. It’s pure fluff and indisputably tacky — but that’s exactly what my church wants. (Have I mentioned I love my church too?) The last three or four years I’ve done some dubious Flash for the annual pledge drive, and people love it. What better reason could there be?

Ultimately you don’t have to have Flash to use the church’s site. It’s easy enough to get to the online pledge form by using the menu or other links. That’s what I mean by contextual. If the site depended on Flash, it would be another matter.

But then again, with very few exceptions (Flash video being one), this web diva eschews sites that depend on Flash. 90% or more are usability nightmares — typically vanity sites at their worst. The iPhone and his Steveness merely prove that point.

Oh my stars has this been a week for little ole’ Nashville. A week ago Google announced that we are now included in their Street View, and today The Tennessean said that Trader Joe’s is coming.

To celebrate this august confluence of events, here are a few street views near-and-dear to my heart.

• My church
• My work (Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center)
• Where Trader Joe’s will be

I remember the first time Jason Shelton introduced himself at our church, ten or so years ago. He looked an interesting and intelligent young man with a promising future. But of course none of us dreamed what was to come.

Sunday he became our new Associate Minister for Music — and made UU history. Not only was the vote an overwhelming majority (96%), but the turnout of members was remarkable by our standards (around 140) and the lack of discussion (just one brief comment) even more remarkable, again by our standards. All in all, it was a huge success.

So why are my antennae going wild? Why am I in a twit? Two reasons. First, I suspect to much of the outside world it looks like a foregone conclusion — and nothing could be further from the truth. Second, how do you convey all of the hard work and dedication that went into this happy outcome? Certainly the press release didn’t. (I helped write it, so I can say this.)

When the process first began, many of us (including me) thought it would be at least straightforward — maybe even easy. We knew Jason was enormously talented, hard-working and in demand at other churches. We were well aware that we were very lucky he liked us enough to want to stay.

What we didn’t realize is that the road of “internal searches” for Unitarian Universalist ministers is a perilous one. Apparently it’s one of those things that’s well known in certain inner circles. However, we only became aware of it a couple of months into the process, when things seemed anything but obvious. I’m not sure what the chemistry is that makes this so, but in retrospect it makes sense. While familiarity doesn’t necessarily breed contempt, it does take the superficial polish off.

As we got further into the process, it became ever more clear to the Transition Committee running the process that there both a large number of the unreservedly enthusiastic and a smaller number who had their doubts. The latter feared that the dominant support of Jason left no place for them. They could easily have been dismissed as troublemakers or misfits — and they knew it. Herein lie the makings of dysfunction.

While I suspect many UU congregations would have done just that, fortunately ours didn’t. The committee, Jason and our senior minister, Gail Seavey, were deeply committed to not just being respectful of this feedback, but also to using it as an opportunity to improve ministry. They went to great lengths to have plenty of meetings where people could safely express their questions and concerns. It was far from easy.

200 plus emails, five open meetings, countless committee and board meetings later, we emerged victorious. I would say in the end what made this such a success was hard work, a deep commitment to truth and respect, and, having a fabulous candidate who loves the congregation, warts and all.