If a wish is a request for something that you just can't manage to get on your own, or for something that really is not possible to get, then I have a few to put on record.
1. A cure for Type-1 Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis: Many lives are lost or altered due to dozens or hundreds of illnesses or diseases that medical science cannot combat. I suppose I could wish for a universal cure, but these specific disorders have a personal impact on me and my family. It is my most selfish wish.
2. Wisdom within our nation's politicians and leaders: Students of history know how rare it is to see wise leaders in the world. They also know how powerful and dramatic social changes can come from the leadership of wise men and women. Corruption tempts all leaders. May our current world leaders find the strength to avoid corruption in all its forms.
3. Sincere adherence to religious teachings: Among all people who claim faithfulness to a religious tradition, please be mindful of the essence of those teachings in your daily lives. No legitimate leader or founder of any major world religious movement has ever advocated hatred or philosophies of destruction in order to achieve a divine purpose. Religious devotion is not a matter of convenience. Always practice your espoused faith. Through such practice, love will dominate life.
4. A daily recognition of our common humanity: No matter what we do, everything can be done and should be done with attention to humanity. To be humane means to consider the overall condition of those lives you have become involved with. Ask always if what you are about to do will add to the improvement of humanity, or reduce our collective greatness. This is at the heart of all religion, but outside of religion, it also has meaning. We all should have a personal interest in the collective well-being of everyone around us. While it is true that some among us profit from the depravity and misery of others, it is my wish that we each make every effort to elevate humanity and ease others' burdens. Do this and you will be happy in your work, and happier in life.
5. Share your knowledge, and happily learn from others: Talk about what you know, and listen to others when they do the same. Keep your mind open to new learning. Ideas inform dialogue, and dialogue shapes opinions. Opinions and ideas are behind any action. So be active in the dialogue around you. Use your education, and always add to it. Knowledge is one of the most reliable keys to power and influence. Everyone does the best he or she can do based on what they know. If you know more, you can do more.
6. Appreciate the life you have now: Even if you are striving to improve your situation, or that of others, don't forget to appreciate the happiness and beauty that exists around you in this moment.
There are more wishes, but these few make up the majority of the sentiment. I can do many things for myself, but I cannot control the actions of others. This is the intent, I think, of the wish. There's nothing original on my list, but that does not make them unimportant. What it does mean is that there is an urgency behind unrealized wishes.
Whoever can read this, please make your best effort to make one or more of these wishes a reality, if only in your own life.
Merry Christmas!
Live Well.
Showing posts with label civility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civility. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
No Cell Phone, Please
I have explained this particular quirk of mine to many people. It isn't because I am proud of it, or because I am some kind of neo-Luddite, but rather simply that I have not felt the need to own a cell phone.
While you're catching your breath and making your exasperated arguments in favor of this decade's favorite toy, let me explain the Luddites. In the late 1700's and well into the next century, the king of industrial labor in England was textiles, the manufacture of fabrics. This work had traditionally been done in small quantities by hand, but during the Industrial Revolution mass production became the mantra of business. Massive factories were being constructed all over Britain for the purpose of creating vast quantities of woven fabrics. These were to be made on giant looms that were automated, at least partially. Humans, especially humans with small hands, like children, were still needed to maintain the operation of the automated machines which were prone to jamming. The nature of these machines were such that they were not shut down in order to free a jam, so children repairing them often lost fingers in the process, or worse.
Ned Ludd, an Englishman working in the textile mill, saw the advent of these machines as the death of skilled laborers like himself. His solution was to destroy the automated looms. Taking his example, in the early years of the 1800's, a rebellion of textile workers arose during which many factories were destroyed. These followers of Ludd, called Luddites, were opposed to new technology which replaces skilled workers, or eliminates their own utility. In their era it simply was not possible to change careers when the apprenticeship program took an average of ten years. Losing one's job was very nearly a death sentence.
Today the term Luddite has been used to describe anyone opposed to technology for a varitey of reasons, but usually associated with folks who oppose using it at the workplace. Where do cell phones fit into this? Sorry, this is what's known as a long walk to the well.
I think cell phones are great. Really. I also think people have come to rely on them far too much, and use them for way too many purposes that are mere distractions. Put into the context of the driving issue, they have become quite dangerous. They also have taken the place of real human contact for a lot of users. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a multi-purpose convenience tool can essentially make you lazy if you let it. Dealing with middle school students has not convinced me either that the phones should be standard equipment in life.
Please don't leave comments about how your cell phone saved your life, or how your business couldn't function without it. I get it. I just ask for a little understanding when I say that I am not that important. I do not need to be that accessible. I have computers and phones in my home. I have computers and phones in my workplace. Virtually everyone I know has a cell phone, so what purpose is served by getting one of my own other than to say I have one? I have survived three pregnancies and births without a cell phone. Everyone involved is doing fine, thanks. And in a couple of decades of driving I have yet to experience the "stranded in the middle of nowhere in a panic" scenario that folks use to convince me that I need a cell phone. (When it does happen, boy, will I be sorry I didn't listen. There, I said it for you.)
Again, I am not opposed to them at all. The iPhone is actually very cool from what I have seen. But I just have yet to make that leap which will allow me to justify the considerable cost and hassle of owning one. Back in the early nineties I was the first and only person I knew who owned a Palm Pilot. I have bought several upgrades of that device over the years. Actually I got in trouble once at a meeting because the parent had accused me of ignoring her and playing on my calculator. I was taking notes on my Palm, but they were still quite unknown to the general public.
Each day when I come home there are perhaps seven or eight messages on the phone. I don't usually listen to them because mostly they are not for me. The people who really need me know how to reach me, or how to find me in person.
(In case you are curious, I also have avoided the following trends that dominate life for many others: smoking, the Adkins Diet, recreational drugs, liposuction, and tanning beds.)
You don't need to pity me, nor must you look away from my hideous condition. I'm quite alright with my Dell laptop, below-average phone bill, and computers and phones by the expanding millions all around me. Incidentally I have had the need, once or twice, to make a call while I was out. Here's the crazy part. I appealed to the spirit of civility around me; I asked someone if I could borrow her phone-- a total stranger!--and she was happy to let me do it. In a desperate and insane world, you sometimes have to resort to rebellious behavior to make a point. Thanks, Ned. You know how to reach me.
Live well.
While you're catching your breath and making your exasperated arguments in favor of this decade's favorite toy, let me explain the Luddites. In the late 1700's and well into the next century, the king of industrial labor in England was textiles, the manufacture of fabrics. This work had traditionally been done in small quantities by hand, but during the Industrial Revolution mass production became the mantra of business. Massive factories were being constructed all over Britain for the purpose of creating vast quantities of woven fabrics. These were to be made on giant looms that were automated, at least partially. Humans, especially humans with small hands, like children, were still needed to maintain the operation of the automated machines which were prone to jamming. The nature of these machines were such that they were not shut down in order to free a jam, so children repairing them often lost fingers in the process, or worse.
Ned Ludd, an Englishman working in the textile mill, saw the advent of these machines as the death of skilled laborers like himself. His solution was to destroy the automated looms. Taking his example, in the early years of the 1800's, a rebellion of textile workers arose during which many factories were destroyed. These followers of Ludd, called Luddites, were opposed to new technology which replaces skilled workers, or eliminates their own utility. In their era it simply was not possible to change careers when the apprenticeship program took an average of ten years. Losing one's job was very nearly a death sentence.
Today the term Luddite has been used to describe anyone opposed to technology for a varitey of reasons, but usually associated with folks who oppose using it at the workplace. Where do cell phones fit into this? Sorry, this is what's known as a long walk to the well.
I think cell phones are great. Really. I also think people have come to rely on them far too much, and use them for way too many purposes that are mere distractions. Put into the context of the driving issue, they have become quite dangerous. They also have taken the place of real human contact for a lot of users. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a multi-purpose convenience tool can essentially make you lazy if you let it. Dealing with middle school students has not convinced me either that the phones should be standard equipment in life.
Please don't leave comments about how your cell phone saved your life, or how your business couldn't function without it. I get it. I just ask for a little understanding when I say that I am not that important. I do not need to be that accessible. I have computers and phones in my home. I have computers and phones in my workplace. Virtually everyone I know has a cell phone, so what purpose is served by getting one of my own other than to say I have one? I have survived three pregnancies and births without a cell phone. Everyone involved is doing fine, thanks. And in a couple of decades of driving I have yet to experience the "stranded in the middle of nowhere in a panic" scenario that folks use to convince me that I need a cell phone. (When it does happen, boy, will I be sorry I didn't listen. There, I said it for you.)
Again, I am not opposed to them at all. The iPhone is actually very cool from what I have seen. But I just have yet to make that leap which will allow me to justify the considerable cost and hassle of owning one. Back in the early nineties I was the first and only person I knew who owned a Palm Pilot. I have bought several upgrades of that device over the years. Actually I got in trouble once at a meeting because the parent had accused me of ignoring her and playing on my calculator. I was taking notes on my Palm, but they were still quite unknown to the general public.
Each day when I come home there are perhaps seven or eight messages on the phone. I don't usually listen to them because mostly they are not for me. The people who really need me know how to reach me, or how to find me in person.
(In case you are curious, I also have avoided the following trends that dominate life for many others: smoking, the Adkins Diet, recreational drugs, liposuction, and tanning beds.)
You don't need to pity me, nor must you look away from my hideous condition. I'm quite alright with my Dell laptop, below-average phone bill, and computers and phones by the expanding millions all around me. Incidentally I have had the need, once or twice, to make a call while I was out. Here's the crazy part. I appealed to the spirit of civility around me; I asked someone if I could borrow her phone-- a total stranger!--and she was happy to let me do it. In a desperate and insane world, you sometimes have to resort to rebellious behavior to make a point. Thanks, Ned. You know how to reach me.
Live well.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Where Gino Knows Your Name
Einstein Bros Bagels in Speedway, Indiana: go there most mornings from around 7am until maybe 9am, and you might just meet a new friend. I started going to Einstein's (I'm a Hoosier; I can do that to a place name) a few years ago when my son had a tendency to get up in the morning way too early. I tried for a while to fight it, but putting him back to bed just made the other kids and my wife wake up, too. I had the idea to just take him into the car at 6am, still in his pajamas, and drive over to the bagel store.
Little did I know that this diversion trip would start a tradition. I have since taken all three of the kids there, though now we usually dress more appropriately. I'm not sure what the age limit is on looking cute in pajamas in public, but no one minds when it is a baby or toddler. My son loved it from the first visit onward. He would just sit calmly and watch the people. They would smile at him, sometimes coming over to talk, while I read the paper and drank coffee. I would get him a bagel or a pumpkin muffin, his favorite. Folks often commented on how calm and quiet he was, and wondered if it was always that way. I assured them it was not.
On one of these early trips I started talking with one of the shop regulars who had taken an interest in my boy. His name is Gino. Gino seems to be everyone's friend. He loves watching my son eat. Gino and I have had many conversations over the last two or three years, and he always asks about my family. He is sincerely interested in all of the news I tell him. Gino usually tells me once or twice in the conversation, in case I might forget, "Man, you're rich. You're rich and you don't know it." I tell him that I do know, and I drive away to work or back home feeling better about everything. I am rich.
I loved the idea from Cheers of Norm walking into the bar and everyone shouting his name. When I go to the bagel shop, with or without my kids, if Gino is there he will always call out my name. "Hey, Andy. How's that family?" I don't know if anyone else knows my name in there. If they do, they choose not to use it. But that's OK. Gino knows me, my family, and the magnitude of my wealth that has nothing to do with money. It's good to be reminded of that.
In an anonymous, busy life, Gino is a dose of civility and friendliness worth slowing down for. Einstein's Darn Good Coffee is actually pretty darn good, too.
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