OK, well, just in case those silly Mayans were right (predicting the end of the world, but not their own demise) I'm going to get my Christmas Greetings out to you all right now. That way, no matter what happens, I'm covered as for getting this social norm out of the way. Really, I'm not a Christmas card person. I don't send that many, if any of them. If I did, it would most likely include some bit of a form letter, and it would sound much like what you're reading right now. So, as much as I love the post office for their inspiring forays into Hollywood, I'm going for the elctronic delivery method. I hear all the cool kids are doing this.
It's hard to wrap my mind around the concept that another year has come and gone. In some ways, It seems longer, and in others, the time is all too fleeting. I feel a bit like Charles Dickens when I say it was the longest year and the shortest year, but there you have it. As it always does, the first half of my year went by pretty fast. Before I knew it, the nice weather was upon me, and I got that old familiar itch: it was time to ride. As in 2011, I likewise had my place in the 2012 MS 150: Escape to the Lake assured, and raised money for the two-day event in early June. More than anything, this means getting out and riding a lot. in 2011, this meant a lot of riding on my own, and while there was still plenty of that this year, I also got in touch with some other riders and went out on several occcasions with them. It's nice to extend my community of cycling friends to include those warriors for this event, and it's even more nice to realize that not only am I able to keep up with many of them....but in a lot of cases, it's them trying to keep up with me. I guess that the difference between casual riders and racers. Riders ride, racers go on rides and want to go faster.
My grandmother Mildred finished her mission in this life this summer. At 94 years old, it was a good life, a mission accomplished. At long last, she was reunited with my grandfather Joe. It was both joyous and sad- the family gathered because of a loss, but yet, the renewal of family bonds was what both Joe and Mildred would have wanted: just to know we were all ok.
Summer was spent doing the usual: camping, enjoying the outdoors, small vacations here and there. A discovery trip to a little town called Ohiopyle in SW PA was a blast, and I got to share this and a few other exploratory experiences with the best partner I could ask for. See, it was shortly after the MS 150 that I met someone, and since then, my life has been an abundance of beauty and joy that I previously dared not hope to find. With her, I have discovered the following:
Beauty in all things, including myself
Grace and compsure
patience and understanding
wisdom
strength
knowledge and kindness
and someone who makes me as much a part of her thoughts as I make her a part of mine.
In the last six months, I have done more living than I think I've done in the last couple years, and with every moment, it becomes more exhillerating, more clear to me, and more enjoyable. Even those not-so-great moments end up looking pretty good. Camping trips, meeting her family, sharing my family with her, traversing the culinary delights of different foods, beers, wines, liquors...these have filled my last six months.
But, it's that time of year when we look back and remember, both with fondness and regret, the lessons that life has taught us. As I look back, I find that this year, I would change nothing. Even the bad things that happened, I would keep. They have made this year full, exciting, and there were hidden joys in each moment that I would have otherwise missed.
Life is good.
So, my wish for all of you is that 2013 be for you a time of peace, where you find your mind, heart, and spirit filled with grace and joy. May you find your faith as only you can, and may your journey be fruitful. May you know love of family. May you know the love of a good man/woman (as befits your needs). May you wake each day to new opportunities to grow, and may you seek out opportunities to help others do the same.
Thanks for reading,
The Fat Kid
Monday, December 17, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Of Libraries and Christmas Trees, and "Ben Stein"...
Hello, e-land, and Merry Christmas! That's right, I said it. No mere "Happy Holidays" from me, I said the dreaded words, "Merry Chrsitmas." You what? I like them. I'll say them again. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Life can be interesting and surprising to me, at times. Recently, I was in a conference for work, where the keynote speaker was talking about the next generation of library infrasrtucture. Naturally, in a topic so dry (unless you're a computer programmer) there was plenty of time to let your thoughts wander. As I looked around and watched the eyes of my compatriots glaze over, I was struck by what the speaker was talking about: cooperative efforts to get us all on the proverbial "same page."
I began to wonder where we are headed. I don't just mean if we're going to heaven or hell or anything like that - no, where is humanity going, as a species? We learn so much differently than we used to. In some ways, we are far more advanced than we used to be, and in others, I wonder if we've come very far at all - or if we have, at what cost has it come?
This is not a new argument. We've been asking it in one form or another since time began. The early scientists - or alchemists, if you prefer - were criticized for witchcraft, or later, devil-worship, and men who saw something different in the world, like Galileo and Copernicus, DaVinci and others, were commonly mocked, maltreated, and otherwise shunned and punished for simply not believing what everyone else believed. They were different. Only years - centuries - later, were they recognized for the gifts of thought they gave the world.
It's this attitude of discovery that has spurred us onward. It was responsible for colonialism (well, ok, the lust for gold MAY have had something to do with that as well) and it's still responsible today for the ever-growing desire to push forward into new and uncharted territory. So, the "what's next?" for man has been the driving desire for a long time. We're used to it. it's comfy. It ought to be - we've had long enough to get used to it.
But what has this done for Man as a whole? We still murder, cheat, lie, steal, gossip, and a myriad of other nasty things. In fact, we've only gotten better at those things with the passage of time. We learn faster, we communicate faster, we encounter our world as never before, and always, there's a push for more, more, more, more. Even in libraries, the latest push is to join in the "cloud" universe - an oganic, open-concept philosophy that revolves around making everything open to everyone all the time...no limits.
It's that "no limits" thing that got me thinking. Have we surpassed our best age, and become something less than what we once were? Our ingenuity and our uniqueness once stemmed from our inability to communicate ideas and reactions instantaneously. Well, that's gone. I can write this in one part of the world, and as long as I upload it to the internet, anyone worldwide can read it within moments. When I want to find a recipe, I "google it" and find the information I want, and then I can create the same recipe that someone else already created. Oh sure, it's delicious....but what have I invented? More importantly, what have I invested? Only as much time as it takes to find a recipe. Nothing more. Where is my contribution? Is it really to my advantage?
We are caught, once again, in that place, asking the question that has bothered us for so long, illustrated so well by Michael Chrichton so well in "Jurassic Park," You scientists are always so busy trying to figure out what you can do, you never bother to ask whether or not you should.' So I wonder - Should we try and achieve this unique "cloud" formation, which is, by it's definition, unable to be specifically governed, measured, assessed, and practiced with the efficiency we have come to expect form our world? I don't know. It's scary.
BUT, we're seeing this in other places of our world, particularly in the United States. I recently came across a letter written by Mr Ben Stein. Well, it turns out this is rather a hoax - Mr. Stein never really wrote such a letter, though it does appear that he said many of the things the letter contained. Someone did a good job of taking Mr. Stein's thoughts and stringing them together to make a point. The point? That by including more people in our decision-making and policy-making, what we've managed to do is to take a hold of the "least common denominator" and begin to adopt a society that is, in some way, less than what it used to be. This particular "article" voiced specifically the abandoning of the concept of the Christian God in lieu of simply making sure that people are not offended., and looking at other practical examples of where the abandonment of old and accepted ways of function have yeilded less than perfect results. One that was mentioned was Dr. Spock's (the real one, not the Star Trek Character) insistence that spanking is bad for children...then pointing out (factuality questionable) that Spock's son then killed himself. (UPDATE: No, Spock's son is still alive...in fact, both the man's children are, living long and prospering. Yeah, I went there.)
But the article may not be wrong in its goal of raising the question, 'have we gone too far astray from humanity, to the point where we are now limiting us more than we are helping us?'" Our learning rates and test scores are lower then ever in our educational facilities. We are willing to accept less quality from students just so that we can pass more of them. Some people get offended when we say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. We cannot teach the bible in public school, even though it plays a significant part in European and American History. Someone is offended. A friend of mine, whose opinions I cherish, but happens to believe differently than I, is upset that his tax dollars might go to support a National Christmas Tree - because he is atheist and doesn't believe in Christmas. Now, I would not suggest that my friend doesn't have a small point - he does. But this comes back to the "lowest common denominator" principle I spoke about earlier. If we continue this path in the name of progress, will we end up doing no more than the barest minimum, and therefore create nothing that is worth celebrating anymore? Have we seen the best that Man can do, and are now just living out a substandard decline into non-pertinent existence?
Have we grown to the point where we are so much "on the same page" that there is no one left who can read the writing and be that dissenting voice? More importantly, if we do find that voice....will we listen to it?
Life can be interesting and surprising to me, at times. Recently, I was in a conference for work, where the keynote speaker was talking about the next generation of library infrasrtucture. Naturally, in a topic so dry (unless you're a computer programmer) there was plenty of time to let your thoughts wander. As I looked around and watched the eyes of my compatriots glaze over, I was struck by what the speaker was talking about: cooperative efforts to get us all on the proverbial "same page."
I began to wonder where we are headed. I don't just mean if we're going to heaven or hell or anything like that - no, where is humanity going, as a species? We learn so much differently than we used to. In some ways, we are far more advanced than we used to be, and in others, I wonder if we've come very far at all - or if we have, at what cost has it come?
This is not a new argument. We've been asking it in one form or another since time began. The early scientists - or alchemists, if you prefer - were criticized for witchcraft, or later, devil-worship, and men who saw something different in the world, like Galileo and Copernicus, DaVinci and others, were commonly mocked, maltreated, and otherwise shunned and punished for simply not believing what everyone else believed. They were different. Only years - centuries - later, were they recognized for the gifts of thought they gave the world.
It's this attitude of discovery that has spurred us onward. It was responsible for colonialism (well, ok, the lust for gold MAY have had something to do with that as well) and it's still responsible today for the ever-growing desire to push forward into new and uncharted territory. So, the "what's next?" for man has been the driving desire for a long time. We're used to it. it's comfy. It ought to be - we've had long enough to get used to it.
But what has this done for Man as a whole? We still murder, cheat, lie, steal, gossip, and a myriad of other nasty things. In fact, we've only gotten better at those things with the passage of time. We learn faster, we communicate faster, we encounter our world as never before, and always, there's a push for more, more, more, more. Even in libraries, the latest push is to join in the "cloud" universe - an oganic, open-concept philosophy that revolves around making everything open to everyone all the time...no limits.
It's that "no limits" thing that got me thinking. Have we surpassed our best age, and become something less than what we once were? Our ingenuity and our uniqueness once stemmed from our inability to communicate ideas and reactions instantaneously. Well, that's gone. I can write this in one part of the world, and as long as I upload it to the internet, anyone worldwide can read it within moments. When I want to find a recipe, I "google it" and find the information I want, and then I can create the same recipe that someone else already created. Oh sure, it's delicious....but what have I invented? More importantly, what have I invested? Only as much time as it takes to find a recipe. Nothing more. Where is my contribution? Is it really to my advantage?
We are caught, once again, in that place, asking the question that has bothered us for so long, illustrated so well by Michael Chrichton so well in "Jurassic Park," You scientists are always so busy trying to figure out what you can do, you never bother to ask whether or not you should.' So I wonder - Should we try and achieve this unique "cloud" formation, which is, by it's definition, unable to be specifically governed, measured, assessed, and practiced with the efficiency we have come to expect form our world? I don't know. It's scary.
BUT, we're seeing this in other places of our world, particularly in the United States. I recently came across a letter written by Mr Ben Stein. Well, it turns out this is rather a hoax - Mr. Stein never really wrote such a letter, though it does appear that he said many of the things the letter contained. Someone did a good job of taking Mr. Stein's thoughts and stringing them together to make a point. The point? That by including more people in our decision-making and policy-making, what we've managed to do is to take a hold of the "least common denominator" and begin to adopt a society that is, in some way, less than what it used to be. This particular "article" voiced specifically the abandoning of the concept of the Christian God in lieu of simply making sure that people are not offended., and looking at other practical examples of where the abandonment of old and accepted ways of function have yeilded less than perfect results. One that was mentioned was Dr. Spock's (the real one, not the Star Trek Character) insistence that spanking is bad for children...then pointing out (factuality questionable) that Spock's son then killed himself. (UPDATE: No, Spock's son is still alive...in fact, both the man's children are, living long and prospering. Yeah, I went there.)
But the article may not be wrong in its goal of raising the question, 'have we gone too far astray from humanity, to the point where we are now limiting us more than we are helping us?'" Our learning rates and test scores are lower then ever in our educational facilities. We are willing to accept less quality from students just so that we can pass more of them. Some people get offended when we say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. We cannot teach the bible in public school, even though it plays a significant part in European and American History. Someone is offended. A friend of mine, whose opinions I cherish, but happens to believe differently than I, is upset that his tax dollars might go to support a National Christmas Tree - because he is atheist and doesn't believe in Christmas. Now, I would not suggest that my friend doesn't have a small point - he does. But this comes back to the "lowest common denominator" principle I spoke about earlier. If we continue this path in the name of progress, will we end up doing no more than the barest minimum, and therefore create nothing that is worth celebrating anymore? Have we seen the best that Man can do, and are now just living out a substandard decline into non-pertinent existence?
Have we grown to the point where we are so much "on the same page" that there is no one left who can read the writing and be that dissenting voice? More importantly, if we do find that voice....will we listen to it?
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