The mind can wander--sometimes for its user's benefit, sometimes to his detriment. A simple and obvious example is this very passage: I wanted to write weeks ago about a wide-ranging conversation our family meandered through, but kept allowing for the other distractions of life that kept me from sharing that very subject. I delay no longer (for fear of both losing my way back to the subject and of leaving this space untended too long).
Sometimes I think the best dialogues we get into are those that have no discernible beginning, middle, and end. Life does not usually follow a classic story model anyway. Our best friends, our closest family, and our significant others can engage us in talks that rely on the nature of the Imperfect Compass--fitting no outline, no set path, but still taking you somewhere you want to go together.
Often these discourses have certain "nodes" that you can go back to or touch upon to redirect the flow, whether it's within minutes ("what were we talking about again") or some other time altogether ("remember when"). The more you travel downstream, the more you need those dots on the map behind ("how did we get here--oh, yeah, we started there").
My favorite versions of these conversations have usually involved sharing something with my son, sometimes with my wife along for the ride, sometimes not, but valuable and fun either way. The boy is still in that critical window I have heard described by others as being between the time the child can understand you and the time the child can't stand you: the listening and learning years. That makes him an empty vessel for pouring in as much as he can handle, and I like to allow for some redirection from his questions...and that means we could be floating down a stream of consciousness belonging to either one of us.
The talk that we enjoyed recently jumped off from Ecuador...sure, why not? How did that even happen? Sunday morning breakfast noshing, up pops a TV promo for a US Soccer friendly against--yes--Ecuador. Next thing you know, I chime in about where Ecuador is and make the translation connection to the equator. From there it was soon a short jaunt to the Galapagos Islands off the coast, and that naturally meant welcoming the HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin, along with his observations, how they came about, and what they would mean when all that proverbially hit the fan in the scientific and religious communities back home...which meant a brief trip through the Book of Genesis as well. We dabbled in how the two sides separated by Darwin's publication have essentially remained at loggerheads to this day. That said, I try not to draw too many conclusions for my son, but I do like to set up enough support to help him figure some things out on his own...or at least give him the freedom to do so.
Other stops along the voyage that morning (and there were MANY) included Columbus and the New World, Galileo observing the stars, some sights at familiar zoos, and--you do remember this started with a soccer game promo, right? Geography, science, and religion because of ESPN...okey-doke, I'm game.
It reminded me of a similar talk from months before that touched on a wide array of topics from history and geopolitics. How did I get into that tangle with the boy? Because I wanted to be sure he had enough background to understand "Captain America", of course. Next thing I know, we have gone over WWII and the Cold War in far greater depth than I ever intended, and hit other historical nodes on the way--based largely on jumping-off-points generated as tidbits picked up from our trip to Washington, D.C. last year.
Before I give you the wrong impression, we certainly don't do this stuff all the time. These wanderings are more exception than rule. Far more typical: he's trying to convince me that there's a difference between this Beyblade and that Beyblade (my basic take--they are still just fancy metal tops, and despite whatever tiny modifications they may have, THEY...ARE...ALL...THE...SAME), and I'm trying to make it clear why checking down to a receiver only two yards downfield on third and long is a bad idea...oh, who am I kidding, he's nine and he understands that...but I'll never get the thing with the tops.
I guess I'm wandering here, and that is fitting given the topic at hand. But if there's a lesson or message, it's to let the focus drift on occasion. If you're in a business meeting or making a presentation, stay on message, by all means. If you're in a conversation with those you would share anything and everything with, well, let the stream take you to any shore. It's a fun ride.
My Choice Song for the Post: "Lost in My Mind" - The Head and the Heart
("Momma once told me/You’re already home where you feel love/I am lost in my mind/I get lost in my mind"...a recent release that deserved a little more attention than I think it got--not as deep as it may want to be, perhaps, but cozy and comfortable, and that suits me just fine)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Dreaming My Dreams" - The Cranberries
(not cozy fun like the song above, but a slow, brooding number from this once-familiar Irish group...worth noting it does include the somewhat appropriate opening lyrics "All the things you said to me today/Changed my perspective in every way")
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
No Trivial Matter
"R: We could play at questions.
G: What good would that do?" --Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
Pop culture fascinates me, sports captivate me, science intrigues me, history teaches me...because of these things, like many modern adults, I have accumulated an enormous stockpile of varied and only loosely organized or connected facts. I admit this knowledge means I can hold my own in a fairly wide range of trivia questions and quizzes (to this point, I cited my "Sporcle" addiction in a previous entry--I have taken every quiz that has tumbled onto my phone since the day I installed the app, and that means hundreds of them--don't judge me too harshly), but as fun as all that is, it's not exactly "Useful Life Skills" for $200, Alex.
It's no accident that the coming-of-age period for my generation saw the gaming explosion of Trivial Pursuit and a thousand variations. We're all brimming with these facts and needed some place to use them, so endless games, contests, and quizzes siphon them off just enough to keep our brains from popping under the pressure.
The main culprit behind the exponential growth in trivia--both the creation and distribution? Television. I know, always blame the TV...I hate that too. But think about what TV did for EVERYTHING in the late 20th century: created a new litany of entertainment programming each year, established a parade of star performers, brought older movies back into our lives, presented historic events as they happened, showed sports events and grew sports leagues--and then was able to repeat those feats on a basic level by showing them all over again and on a more complex level by doing it constantly through the passing decades. The television world poured out facts and details galore as it created an enhanced and shared experience unlike any other in history. While the concept of the "zeitgeist," or "spirit of the times," was centuries old as an idea, TV found a way to create and shape the zeitgeist--and change it all over again in short order.
I have suggested to others that those in my age range (let's just say 36-46 for the sake of argument) are trivia's "Greatest Generation." There are exceptions, of course, both older and younger, but follow me for a moment...in the 70's & 80's, when this group was growing up, you could still see nearly all the touchstone programs dating back to the early days of TV as repeats--with weekends showing old movies, themed from Tarzan to Abbott & Costello to the Marx Brothers to monster flicks (and in Tampa, that was "Creature Feature," hosted by Dr. Paul Bearer...say it out loud, you'll get it). Stations had no qualms about running actual (gasp) black-and-white programming in their otherwise color line-ups when it came to I Love Lucy, The Addams Family, and so on--heck, several shows transitioned from b/w to color, so if you wanted to show all the episodes you had no choice. Plus you had the new programming to take in, of course...and Saturdays ran plenty of cartoons, and cable was juuuust getting started, and MTV actually ran videos and... (pause for a moment--really, I'm not trying to sound like a grumpy old man, honest!).
Then there's the music. Forgive the fact that disco invaded the formative years of these youths and consider the cross-generational impact--the parents of these "GenXers" (always hated all variations of that term), the Baby Boomers, were the fans of the early days of rock and roll and all the trappings that went along with that. So while soaking in the punk-alternative transition along with the hyper-synthesized infusion in pop music, these kids had a backdrop playing in the home of the Beatles, the Stones, and Elvis. While still attuned to pop music, this group would see alternative become mainstream, watch rap become hip-hop, and see the coming and going of concepts like grunge, gangsta, and emo.
Sports? I won't dwell on it, but the lifespan of this group and the Super Bowl--same time period. Massive expansion and media exposure for athletics--with more to take in all the time.
Yep, in addition to the standard exposure in school to the wide world of history, literature, and science, the GenX crowd had a perfect opportunity to take in the breadth of 20th century and early 21st century pop culture: a trivia gold mine...time to point that Imperfect Compass in all directions--or spin it for your next turn in Twister.
Armed with that concept, now we have to take in this one: although you'd think that the potential for more and more growth in this area was likely, we have surpassed saturation--the internet and mobile devices have changed how we experience content forever, satellite TV and radio have fragmented and multiplied content delivery to a degree that defies containment. With that, it is impossible to take in all the new content being generated now, and nearly impossible to soak in all the pop culture content past. Our kids will learn and do amazing things, but they're probably not going to be trivia stars.
So as years go by, just as with history, we will find music, movies, and TV all abbreviated to shorthand versions--details will be lost, and the beauty of the trivia right along with them. Shame, really. Trivial Pursuit, anyone?
My Choice Song for the Post: "I Know What I Know" - Paul Simon
(a nearly-nonsense number from "Graceland", this features a chorus that says "I know what I know, I'll sing what I have said, we come and we go, that's the thing that I keep in the back of my head"...sounds like a decent metaphor for our respective trivia libraries)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Ice 9" - Joe Satriani
(the iPod apparently wanted a counterpoint to the lyric-heavy Simon, so we get a classic instrumental guitar groove from Satriani)
G: What good would that do?" --Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
Pop culture fascinates me, sports captivate me, science intrigues me, history teaches me...because of these things, like many modern adults, I have accumulated an enormous stockpile of varied and only loosely organized or connected facts. I admit this knowledge means I can hold my own in a fairly wide range of trivia questions and quizzes (to this point, I cited my "Sporcle" addiction in a previous entry--I have taken every quiz that has tumbled onto my phone since the day I installed the app, and that means hundreds of them--don't judge me too harshly), but as fun as all that is, it's not exactly "Useful Life Skills" for $200, Alex.
It's no accident that the coming-of-age period for my generation saw the gaming explosion of Trivial Pursuit and a thousand variations. We're all brimming with these facts and needed some place to use them, so endless games, contests, and quizzes siphon them off just enough to keep our brains from popping under the pressure.
The main culprit behind the exponential growth in trivia--both the creation and distribution? Television. I know, always blame the TV...I hate that too. But think about what TV did for EVERYTHING in the late 20th century: created a new litany of entertainment programming each year, established a parade of star performers, brought older movies back into our lives, presented historic events as they happened, showed sports events and grew sports leagues--and then was able to repeat those feats on a basic level by showing them all over again and on a more complex level by doing it constantly through the passing decades. The television world poured out facts and details galore as it created an enhanced and shared experience unlike any other in history. While the concept of the "zeitgeist," or "spirit of the times," was centuries old as an idea, TV found a way to create and shape the zeitgeist--and change it all over again in short order.
I have suggested to others that those in my age range (let's just say 36-46 for the sake of argument) are trivia's "Greatest Generation." There are exceptions, of course, both older and younger, but follow me for a moment...in the 70's & 80's, when this group was growing up, you could still see nearly all the touchstone programs dating back to the early days of TV as repeats--with weekends showing old movies, themed from Tarzan to Abbott & Costello to the Marx Brothers to monster flicks (and in Tampa, that was "Creature Feature," hosted by Dr. Paul Bearer...say it out loud, you'll get it). Stations had no qualms about running actual (gasp) black-and-white programming in their otherwise color line-ups when it came to I Love Lucy, The Addams Family, and so on--heck, several shows transitioned from b/w to color, so if you wanted to show all the episodes you had no choice. Plus you had the new programming to take in, of course...and Saturdays ran plenty of cartoons, and cable was juuuust getting started, and MTV actually ran videos and... (pause for a moment--really, I'm not trying to sound like a grumpy old man, honest!).
Then there's the music. Forgive the fact that disco invaded the formative years of these youths and consider the cross-generational impact--the parents of these "GenXers" (always hated all variations of that term), the Baby Boomers, were the fans of the early days of rock and roll and all the trappings that went along with that. So while soaking in the punk-alternative transition along with the hyper-synthesized infusion in pop music, these kids had a backdrop playing in the home of the Beatles, the Stones, and Elvis. While still attuned to pop music, this group would see alternative become mainstream, watch rap become hip-hop, and see the coming and going of concepts like grunge, gangsta, and emo.
Sports? I won't dwell on it, but the lifespan of this group and the Super Bowl--same time period. Massive expansion and media exposure for athletics--with more to take in all the time.
Yep, in addition to the standard exposure in school to the wide world of history, literature, and science, the GenX crowd had a perfect opportunity to take in the breadth of 20th century and early 21st century pop culture: a trivia gold mine...time to point that Imperfect Compass in all directions--or spin it for your next turn in Twister.
Armed with that concept, now we have to take in this one: although you'd think that the potential for more and more growth in this area was likely, we have surpassed saturation--the internet and mobile devices have changed how we experience content forever, satellite TV and radio have fragmented and multiplied content delivery to a degree that defies containment. With that, it is impossible to take in all the new content being generated now, and nearly impossible to soak in all the pop culture content past. Our kids will learn and do amazing things, but they're probably not going to be trivia stars.
So as years go by, just as with history, we will find music, movies, and TV all abbreviated to shorthand versions--details will be lost, and the beauty of the trivia right along with them. Shame, really. Trivial Pursuit, anyone?
My Choice Song for the Post: "I Know What I Know" - Paul Simon
(a nearly-nonsense number from "Graceland", this features a chorus that says "I know what I know, I'll sing what I have said, we come and we go, that's the thing that I keep in the back of my head"...sounds like a decent metaphor for our respective trivia libraries)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Ice 9" - Joe Satriani
(the iPod apparently wanted a counterpoint to the lyric-heavy Simon, so we get a classic instrumental guitar groove from Satriani)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Regeneration Gap
We have all come to accept, for the most part, that change continues to happen at a more rapid rate all the time. You may not think of it in those terms, but we acknowledge it in both obvious and subtle ways. It's a by-product of the tech age and I feel it's a matter worthy of some reflection because I know it's changing ME.
After all, centuries ago (to take a big step back) there were significant stretches where a son could expect to live in a world nearly identical to that of his father--or his grandfather--and perhaps even more generations than that. Certainly there were moments where developments jumped people forward and changed the shape of daily life or altered the landscape in some fashion, but those were the exceptions rather than the rule, at least from a supposedly enlightened 21st century perspective.
Those transformations happened faster and faster in more recent years, particularly as eras like the Industrial Age and Space Age ramped up that speed. The last several full generations have each lived in a setting that was unlike the previous one in a number of ways. Expressed in the pop culture sensibility of the late 20th century, that's part of the "generation gap," or as Will Smith put it while he was still The Fresh Prince, "Parents Just Don't Understand."
A good bit of that is tied to how we communicate--not just the language of the times but also the very method of contact (perhaps the old Marshall McLuhan line is more accurate now than ever: "The medium is the message"). Flashing back to the model of previous centuries, you have the printing press come along, and refinements to that process, sure, and that's the headliner for a long time. But once you get deep into the 19th century, one development begets another and within 150 years, you've taken the telegraph and telephone through enough steps (via radio-TV-PC, etc.) to where we now really have more devices and faster ways of communicating than we have valid things to say!
My ultimate point is this--today there's not exactly a generation gap in the same way we may have had in our youth with our parents or that they undoubtedly did with their parents. Nope--now we can have the equivalent of that same gap IN OUR OWN LIVES. What convenience!
What am I talking about? In a nutshell, I am not entirely sure what I share in common with the me of even FIVE years ago. Obviously we're the same person with the same background and basic character, but follow me for a moment...the 2006 me did not have an iPod nor iPhone, was not familiar with Twitter and Facebook or well-versed in YouTube, did not own the car I currently drive nor hold the job I currently work...plus at the start of that year I was not even living in this house (and my family was split in two cities while making the transition). The iPad simply did not exist, and I'm reasonably certain I knew nothing of the Kindle or the Nook, if they existed.
Now I wonder what I did with anything resembling spare time. Watched TV and read books, perhaps surfed the web and checked e-mail, I suppose (how old-fashioned, me of 2006!). These days I can spend seemingly endless hours on my iPhone, jauntily bouncing from app to app, catching up with countless others on Facebook (mostly old friends I thought I had "lost" until I "found" them again in cyberspace) or on Twitter (mostly famous folks I've never even met in real life, whatever that is anymore). Perhaps instead I'm playing games that test my mind, like trying Words with Friends or taking Sporcle quizzes, or ones that instead test my threshold for addiction, like Angry Birds or SkyBurger (or to be frank, many, many others as well). I thrill at the "magic" that is my iPod, holding more than 8000 songs--and always growing, capturing a full CD collection built over years and putting it in my pocket. The latest device addiction is my Kindle. Yes, they got me too. I have a life-long love affair with books, it's true. But I've been cheating with a Kindle, and loving every minute of it. Surely it won't be as satisfying, I thought. Wrong, I was (talking like Yoda, I am).
So all my "free" time has transformed into a cavalcade of wondrous devices that do miraculous things in my eyes--gadgets that do the stuff I spent years saying, "Wouldn't it be great if we just had something that ____?" Well, we've got them now. And I'm hooked. But not the me of just five years ago--no, that Luddite is blissfully unaware of the transformative power those beauties will have on him in such a short time. That simpleton...and I say all this knowing that when the day comes that I take the step to iPad user, I will likely have the same opinion of present-day me.
No, it's not just on the home front, either. I've had my current job for four years now. When I joined, I was to have responsibilities centering on the website and video streaming for the Big South Conference. Those segments are still at the core of what I do, but you have to add in all those other things now: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the blog, plus coming up with mobile solutions and reacting to new platforms or trying to anticipate next steps. The 2011 me has a job the 2006 me couldn't have properly conceived of back then. Strange but true--talk about following an Imperfect Compass!
So you see what I mean about change? This is not one generation to the next--this is not even really about one decade to the next--this is all within a five-year span of time that has seen alterations in technology and communications, easily obtainable by the average consumer, sufficient to turn large aspects of our lives into something new and different. Thus we are changing within ourselves...not a generation gap, but a Regeneration Gap--a term that would have seemed more aptly applied to Doctor Who than to me or you, but such are our times.
Perhaps five years from now as I reread this internally on the wireless communicating chip implanted in my brain, I'll think of how backwards I was in 2011 for thinking up such nonsense, right before I hop into the matter transporter that gets me across town instantaneously. Yeah, we always joke about what science fiction got wrong (where is my levitating car anyway--preferably one that folds into a briefcase), but consider for a moment what it got RIGHT. We've got people walking around with more computing power in their pocket, or hand, or purse, right now than existed in the entire world altogether when the Space Race began. No information is beyond reach, no experience beyond sharing (for better or for worse). What a SHORT strange trip it's been.
My Choice Song for the Post: "Time" - Pink Floyd
(really, using any version of "The Times They Are A-Changing" seemed both too obvious and heavy-handed, and the Dead reference closed the piece, but consider how "Time" puts its focus on the passage of time and spending time, that seemed appropriate...plus, the song is solid)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Holding On" - Yes
(looks like the iPod also felt a classic rock vibe, which is good--but don't confuse this tune from the later-day Union album with the similarly-titled "Hold On" from 90125, which is simply one of my favorite songs and albums)
After all, centuries ago (to take a big step back) there were significant stretches where a son could expect to live in a world nearly identical to that of his father--or his grandfather--and perhaps even more generations than that. Certainly there were moments where developments jumped people forward and changed the shape of daily life or altered the landscape in some fashion, but those were the exceptions rather than the rule, at least from a supposedly enlightened 21st century perspective.
Those transformations happened faster and faster in more recent years, particularly as eras like the Industrial Age and Space Age ramped up that speed. The last several full generations have each lived in a setting that was unlike the previous one in a number of ways. Expressed in the pop culture sensibility of the late 20th century, that's part of the "generation gap," or as Will Smith put it while he was still The Fresh Prince, "Parents Just Don't Understand."
A good bit of that is tied to how we communicate--not just the language of the times but also the very method of contact (perhaps the old Marshall McLuhan line is more accurate now than ever: "The medium is the message"). Flashing back to the model of previous centuries, you have the printing press come along, and refinements to that process, sure, and that's the headliner for a long time. But once you get deep into the 19th century, one development begets another and within 150 years, you've taken the telegraph and telephone through enough steps (via radio-TV-PC, etc.) to where we now really have more devices and faster ways of communicating than we have valid things to say!
My ultimate point is this--today there's not exactly a generation gap in the same way we may have had in our youth with our parents or that they undoubtedly did with their parents. Nope--now we can have the equivalent of that same gap IN OUR OWN LIVES. What convenience!
What am I talking about? In a nutshell, I am not entirely sure what I share in common with the me of even FIVE years ago. Obviously we're the same person with the same background and basic character, but follow me for a moment...the 2006 me did not have an iPod nor iPhone, was not familiar with Twitter and Facebook or well-versed in YouTube, did not own the car I currently drive nor hold the job I currently work...plus at the start of that year I was not even living in this house (and my family was split in two cities while making the transition). The iPad simply did not exist, and I'm reasonably certain I knew nothing of the Kindle or the Nook, if they existed.
Now I wonder what I did with anything resembling spare time. Watched TV and read books, perhaps surfed the web and checked e-mail, I suppose (how old-fashioned, me of 2006!). These days I can spend seemingly endless hours on my iPhone, jauntily bouncing from app to app, catching up with countless others on Facebook (mostly old friends I thought I had "lost" until I "found" them again in cyberspace) or on Twitter (mostly famous folks I've never even met in real life, whatever that is anymore). Perhaps instead I'm playing games that test my mind, like trying Words with Friends or taking Sporcle quizzes, or ones that instead test my threshold for addiction, like Angry Birds or SkyBurger (or to be frank, many, many others as well). I thrill at the "magic" that is my iPod, holding more than 8000 songs--and always growing, capturing a full CD collection built over years and putting it in my pocket. The latest device addiction is my Kindle. Yes, they got me too. I have a life-long love affair with books, it's true. But I've been cheating with a Kindle, and loving every minute of it. Surely it won't be as satisfying, I thought. Wrong, I was (talking like Yoda, I am).
So all my "free" time has transformed into a cavalcade of wondrous devices that do miraculous things in my eyes--gadgets that do the stuff I spent years saying, "Wouldn't it be great if we just had something that ____?" Well, we've got them now. And I'm hooked. But not the me of just five years ago--no, that Luddite is blissfully unaware of the transformative power those beauties will have on him in such a short time. That simpleton...and I say all this knowing that when the day comes that I take the step to iPad user, I will likely have the same opinion of present-day me.
No, it's not just on the home front, either. I've had my current job for four years now. When I joined, I was to have responsibilities centering on the website and video streaming for the Big South Conference. Those segments are still at the core of what I do, but you have to add in all those other things now: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the blog, plus coming up with mobile solutions and reacting to new platforms or trying to anticipate next steps. The 2011 me has a job the 2006 me couldn't have properly conceived of back then. Strange but true--talk about following an Imperfect Compass!
So you see what I mean about change? This is not one generation to the next--this is not even really about one decade to the next--this is all within a five-year span of time that has seen alterations in technology and communications, easily obtainable by the average consumer, sufficient to turn large aspects of our lives into something new and different. Thus we are changing within ourselves...not a generation gap, but a Regeneration Gap--a term that would have seemed more aptly applied to Doctor Who than to me or you, but such are our times.
Perhaps five years from now as I reread this internally on the wireless communicating chip implanted in my brain, I'll think of how backwards I was in 2011 for thinking up such nonsense, right before I hop into the matter transporter that gets me across town instantaneously. Yeah, we always joke about what science fiction got wrong (where is my levitating car anyway--preferably one that folds into a briefcase), but consider for a moment what it got RIGHT. We've got people walking around with more computing power in their pocket, or hand, or purse, right now than existed in the entire world altogether when the Space Race began. No information is beyond reach, no experience beyond sharing (for better or for worse). What a SHORT strange trip it's been.
My Choice Song for the Post: "Time" - Pink Floyd
(really, using any version of "The Times They Are A-Changing" seemed both too obvious and heavy-handed, and the Dead reference closed the piece, but consider how "Time" puts its focus on the passage of time and spending time, that seemed appropriate...plus, the song is solid)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Holding On" - Yes
(looks like the iPod also felt a classic rock vibe, which is good--but don't confuse this tune from the later-day Union album with the similarly-titled "Hold On" from 90125, which is simply one of my favorite songs and albums)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Getting More Specific
"When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific." --Lily Tomlin
She has a point, doesn't she?
While this subject is one that can get deeply intellectual and take volumes of space, I will not be digging in that hard...no point in trying to juggle the whole of philosophy and identity in a blog entry, right? Of course, that doesn't stop some people, it seems.
But anyway, here's the thing--I think we all have made choices and taken so many turns that we feel the inevitable pull of what if I had done something else--gone the other way? Who would I be today?
That simple split is the foundation of everything from existentialism to time stream theorizing. It's what gives us the thrill of historic or science fiction and the inspiration of Robert Frost poetry quoted at a thousand graduation ceremonies.
In an oversimplifying way, existentialism can be seen as a flowchart system for life: we are the sum and result of our chain of yes/no decisions. That premise can easily seem to create different resulting personalities, but we forget that all too often the lines on those charts have a way of merging down the road.
Looked at another way, one science fiction series I enjoyed reading as a young man regarding the subject of time travel (Simon Hawke's "Timewars", although certainly not the only stories to hit on ideas like this one) suggested that time was like a river--that the metaphor of a time "stream" was remarkably apt. The concept of change was addressed as such: some changes of events are the equivalent of throwing a pebble in that stream--the water goes around it immediately, swallows it so no change is really evident; some changes would be more significant, much like throwing a boulder of size into the waters--forcing the flow to come back together after a gap; while other alterations could be critical, the equivalent of forking the river or even damming it up altogether.
What am I getting at here? Well, let's face it: having the bagel instead of the cereal for breakfast did not alter the course of your life--that's the pebble in the stream, the flowchart option box that returns you to the main line regardless. Not ALL our choices shape who we are, certainly not on a fundamental level, even though the chaos theoreticians would have you believe not only did that bagel potentially matter, but so did the shape of the spiderweb outside and the flap of a butterfly's wings, etc....there's only so far that one could consider going down that route before you become immobilized with concern for the implications.
So when we wonder about the choices and the results, we are generally more curious about those river-fork incidents, or what my favorite author, Sir Terry Pratchett, likes to refer to in some of his works as "the Trousers of Time": those junctures at which you find yourself going down one leg of the time stream or the other.
If I had taken this job instead of that one, moved here instead of there, did this with my money instead of that...if, if, if.... See, these are the things that can keep you up at night if you let them--the things that can make even the most satisfied and relaxed person muse on the implications: would I be the same person today? What would be different in my life?
These issues are not of the Frank Capra "It's a Wonderful Life" bent--we do not typically ask ourselves the "what if I were never around" question like George Bailey does...at least not if we have any sort of positive outlook. It takes a thoroughly negative soul to theorize that life would be better without one's very existence, or at least to think that for more than an instant.
No, these are the matters that we usually worried about at the time we made the decision in the first place, or perhaps entertained second thoughts in short order. Lots of those choice points may involve our professional lives, but for plenty of folks the choices might be more about relationships...each of us has a personal list, whether it's one we keep track of or have moved beyond (or ignored, and as Rush sang, "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"). Either way, just as no two people are the same, no two lists would be the same.
Let me bring this back to me for a second...hey, my blog, my rules.
See, I have had lots of times in my life where I've dwelt on the "what ifs" and wondered where I would be with a change here and there, if I'd have any piece of fame, or wealth, or whatever, instead of what would be considered by some on the outside to be a remarkably average middle-aged life.
But--and here's where we reach the sappy emotional payoff ending of what you thought was an otherwise cerebral discussion--I can look at my son and see that everything was done the right way, so long as he was the result.
One more pop culture reference comes into play here: Watchmen, by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. If you're familiar with the seminal graphic tale (or even the faithful-to-a-fault film), you know that this same realization is part of what saves the world...if you don't know the story by now, the odds that you care about any spoilers will be ridiculously low, so I continue...Dr. Manhattan has dismissed the flawed and self-destructive human race as beneath rescue or redemption--until he understands the beauty of creating unique individual life (even from dark circumstances or amid tragic times) as he gazes upon Laurie (all of which happens on Mars, but let's not get distracted further).
Maybe I could've followed another path, made other choices, but at what cost?
My place in life is a good one right now: my wife, my son, my job, my house, my car, all fit me--the me I have become, have CHOSEN to become...by following my Imperfect Compass, of course.
I look at my son, my captivating nine-year-old boy, and watch him grow into an amazing young man--see him read books I loved at his age, thrill as he develops into quite the soccer player, listen to his evolving appreciation of the world around him, shake my head as he does things without thinking them through...all of it.
The choices that matter are no longer the ones in my past, but the ones I can help him with in the future. I am exactly where I was meant to be, precisely the result of the right choice that got me to him..."and that has made all the difference."
My Choice Song for the Post: "Dancing Nancies" - Dave Matthews Band
(not a better song in mind for the core of this discussion--it's exactly about the question, "could I have been--anyone other than me?")
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle:"Room Full of Mirrors" - Jimi Hendrix
(well, I suppose what's more appropriate than that if you are asking questions of yourself?)
She has a point, doesn't she?
While this subject is one that can get deeply intellectual and take volumes of space, I will not be digging in that hard...no point in trying to juggle the whole of philosophy and identity in a blog entry, right? Of course, that doesn't stop some people, it seems.
But anyway, here's the thing--I think we all have made choices and taken so many turns that we feel the inevitable pull of what if I had done something else--gone the other way? Who would I be today?
That simple split is the foundation of everything from existentialism to time stream theorizing. It's what gives us the thrill of historic or science fiction and the inspiration of Robert Frost poetry quoted at a thousand graduation ceremonies.
In an oversimplifying way, existentialism can be seen as a flowchart system for life: we are the sum and result of our chain of yes/no decisions. That premise can easily seem to create different resulting personalities, but we forget that all too often the lines on those charts have a way of merging down the road.
Looked at another way, one science fiction series I enjoyed reading as a young man regarding the subject of time travel (Simon Hawke's "Timewars", although certainly not the only stories to hit on ideas like this one) suggested that time was like a river--that the metaphor of a time "stream" was remarkably apt. The concept of change was addressed as such: some changes of events are the equivalent of throwing a pebble in that stream--the water goes around it immediately, swallows it so no change is really evident; some changes would be more significant, much like throwing a boulder of size into the waters--forcing the flow to come back together after a gap; while other alterations could be critical, the equivalent of forking the river or even damming it up altogether.
What am I getting at here? Well, let's face it: having the bagel instead of the cereal for breakfast did not alter the course of your life--that's the pebble in the stream, the flowchart option box that returns you to the main line regardless. Not ALL our choices shape who we are, certainly not on a fundamental level, even though the chaos theoreticians would have you believe not only did that bagel potentially matter, but so did the shape of the spiderweb outside and the flap of a butterfly's wings, etc....there's only so far that one could consider going down that route before you become immobilized with concern for the implications.
So when we wonder about the choices and the results, we are generally more curious about those river-fork incidents, or what my favorite author, Sir Terry Pratchett, likes to refer to in some of his works as "the Trousers of Time": those junctures at which you find yourself going down one leg of the time stream or the other.
If I had taken this job instead of that one, moved here instead of there, did this with my money instead of that...if, if, if.... See, these are the things that can keep you up at night if you let them--the things that can make even the most satisfied and relaxed person muse on the implications: would I be the same person today? What would be different in my life?
These issues are not of the Frank Capra "It's a Wonderful Life" bent--we do not typically ask ourselves the "what if I were never around" question like George Bailey does...at least not if we have any sort of positive outlook. It takes a thoroughly negative soul to theorize that life would be better without one's very existence, or at least to think that for more than an instant.
No, these are the matters that we usually worried about at the time we made the decision in the first place, or perhaps entertained second thoughts in short order. Lots of those choice points may involve our professional lives, but for plenty of folks the choices might be more about relationships...each of us has a personal list, whether it's one we keep track of or have moved beyond (or ignored, and as Rush sang, "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"). Either way, just as no two people are the same, no two lists would be the same.
Let me bring this back to me for a second...hey, my blog, my rules.
See, I have had lots of times in my life where I've dwelt on the "what ifs" and wondered where I would be with a change here and there, if I'd have any piece of fame, or wealth, or whatever, instead of what would be considered by some on the outside to be a remarkably average middle-aged life.
But--and here's where we reach the sappy emotional payoff ending of what you thought was an otherwise cerebral discussion--I can look at my son and see that everything was done the right way, so long as he was the result.
One more pop culture reference comes into play here: Watchmen, by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. If you're familiar with the seminal graphic tale (or even the faithful-to-a-fault film), you know that this same realization is part of what saves the world...if you don't know the story by now, the odds that you care about any spoilers will be ridiculously low, so I continue...Dr. Manhattan has dismissed the flawed and self-destructive human race as beneath rescue or redemption--until he understands the beauty of creating unique individual life (even from dark circumstances or amid tragic times) as he gazes upon Laurie (all of which happens on Mars, but let's not get distracted further).
Maybe I could've followed another path, made other choices, but at what cost?
My place in life is a good one right now: my wife, my son, my job, my house, my car, all fit me--the me I have become, have CHOSEN to become...by following my Imperfect Compass, of course.
I look at my son, my captivating nine-year-old boy, and watch him grow into an amazing young man--see him read books I loved at his age, thrill as he develops into quite the soccer player, listen to his evolving appreciation of the world around him, shake my head as he does things without thinking them through...all of it.
The choices that matter are no longer the ones in my past, but the ones I can help him with in the future. I am exactly where I was meant to be, precisely the result of the right choice that got me to him..."and that has made all the difference."
My Choice Song for the Post: "Dancing Nancies" - Dave Matthews Band
(not a better song in mind for the core of this discussion--it's exactly about the question, "could I have been--anyone other than me?")
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle:"Room Full of Mirrors" - Jimi Hendrix
(well, I suppose what's more appropriate than that if you are asking questions of yourself?)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Second Star to the Right...
"...and straight on til morning," of course.
And thus the literary-minded will turn their recollection wheels to Peter Pan, while more geek-spun minds will point instead with a smile to Captain Kirk, quoting from Pan. Those of us who try to keep track of all things pop cultural, trivial, and...well, actually I guess I could have stopped that phrase at "all things", will try to acknowledge both at the same time. A pocket irony, given a line dedicated to direction, and the optimistic course of fantasy and freedom as well, that it could itself be taken down different paths.
Felt like a fun thought exercise to get this rolling, this Imperfect Compass of mine. After all, with a seemingly infinite array of blogs in our online world, what direction could mine possibly take--what vector would point the way? This is a project I've been thinking of for some time: about two years, actually, with the last 12 months being quite serious on the subject. The problem was getting the necessary kick-start, as I was often succumbing to a classic obstacle, the need for a perfect start...the look, the title, the content, and so on.
Having gotten past that personal affectation (noting that this prattle is far from perfect), I can actually recognize some blog facts for its first day:
1- while it could be of greater value to truly run hard within a single designated niche topic going forward, I accept that the niche here is that of my perspective--and that can take us many directions indeed
2- I like and follow a lot of things, and have had a growing interest (and encouragement from others) in sharing some of those thoughts on matters ranging from popular culture to sports, among other things, so if you don't like a post on one day, come back and try something else...kinda like Florida weather
3- while I desire to have posts with reliable frequency, I will not promise any schedule specifics here--the real world is too real many days and time only goes in one direction...so as much as I desire to write (and that has been increasingly strong of late), this will not be feeding the family in figurative or literal senses, and priorities may be elsewhere
So you don't have much idea yet...that's cool, neither do I.
As we travel, feel free to share any and all comments. I welcome the exchange of thoughts...it may even alter the trail the posts follow.
It's like the title says, we're running our lives on an Imperfect Compass: we aspire to reach certain goals, yet our internal guides don't always take us on the straight line course; we think things are sure to be about one thing, but the needle is pointing away. It's not a "broken" compass, it's just not exactly right--and that's okay, because the best stuff is usually on the side road anyway. So let's explore, meander, and find where it takes us.
My Choice Song for the Post: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
(a song with anthem qualities in rock and roll style over a gospel heart, the yearning quality and the desire to go any direction needed just felt right here)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Out of Control" - Animotion
(personal judgment by the iPod? Maybe...just a little something by a band better known for "Obsession" and "I Engineer", in much the same 80's style as those numbers)
And thus the literary-minded will turn their recollection wheels to Peter Pan, while more geek-spun minds will point instead with a smile to Captain Kirk, quoting from Pan. Those of us who try to keep track of all things pop cultural, trivial, and...well, actually I guess I could have stopped that phrase at "all things", will try to acknowledge both at the same time. A pocket irony, given a line dedicated to direction, and the optimistic course of fantasy and freedom as well, that it could itself be taken down different paths.
Felt like a fun thought exercise to get this rolling, this Imperfect Compass of mine. After all, with a seemingly infinite array of blogs in our online world, what direction could mine possibly take--what vector would point the way? This is a project I've been thinking of for some time: about two years, actually, with the last 12 months being quite serious on the subject. The problem was getting the necessary kick-start, as I was often succumbing to a classic obstacle, the need for a perfect start...the look, the title, the content, and so on.
Having gotten past that personal affectation (noting that this prattle is far from perfect), I can actually recognize some blog facts for its first day:
1- while it could be of greater value to truly run hard within a single designated niche topic going forward, I accept that the niche here is that of my perspective--and that can take us many directions indeed
2- I like and follow a lot of things, and have had a growing interest (and encouragement from others) in sharing some of those thoughts on matters ranging from popular culture to sports, among other things, so if you don't like a post on one day, come back and try something else...kinda like Florida weather
3- while I desire to have posts with reliable frequency, I will not promise any schedule specifics here--the real world is too real many days and time only goes in one direction...so as much as I desire to write (and that has been increasingly strong of late), this will not be feeding the family in figurative or literal senses, and priorities may be elsewhere
So you don't have much idea yet...that's cool, neither do I.
As we travel, feel free to share any and all comments. I welcome the exchange of thoughts...it may even alter the trail the posts follow.
It's like the title says, we're running our lives on an Imperfect Compass: we aspire to reach certain goals, yet our internal guides don't always take us on the straight line course; we think things are sure to be about one thing, but the needle is pointing away. It's not a "broken" compass, it's just not exactly right--and that's okay, because the best stuff is usually on the side road anyway. So let's explore, meander, and find where it takes us.
My Choice Song for the Post: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
(a song with anthem qualities in rock and roll style over a gospel heart, the yearning quality and the desire to go any direction needed just felt right here)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Out of Control" - Animotion
(personal judgment by the iPod? Maybe...just a little something by a band better known for "Obsession" and "I Engineer", in much the same 80's style as those numbers)
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