Blueprints

When I was 16 years old I took an architectural drafting class in school.  Our major assignment was to take the foundation and structure of an old barn and create an architectural rendering of how best to turn it into a livable home.  There was an added incentive to the assignment in that it was a county contest, and the best designs had a chance to win scholarship money towards architectural classes at a local university.

I was passionately obsessed with that assignment.  I had that drawing on my mind all day, and then especially at night as I would lay in bed and imagine how I could make the interior of that barn into one of the coolest homes on the planet.  I imagined spiral staircases, lofts, balconies, alcoves, hidden rooms - you name it and I probably tried to imagine a way to incorporate that into my design.  I would mentally walk through the house and see all the minutest details, feel the things I wanted to incorporate like the texture of exposed wood beams or the chill of the stones from a field stone fireplace, and smell the fresh paint and carpet.  Each day in class I would take my ideas and try to fit them into the drawing.  Some of them fit (at least in my mind), but most of them did not.  That didn't stop me from continuing to think about new ways to enhance my plan all the time.  As the assignment deadline approached, I was pretty convinced that my concepts and drawings were the best ones in the class.  I prepared my various perspective views on the home (the blueprints) and put together presentation materials to explain to the judges the concepts and the flow of the home.

The judgement/presentation day came and I walked up to the podium and projector with confidence and did my presentation.  I knew my design intimately and absolutely loved it.  When they announced that I had finished in the top three from my school and that I was moving on to the next level of competition, I was not at all surprised because I KNEW that my design was awesome.  But then they sat the three of us down to give us "feedback" on our designs, and what they said to me floored me at the time, but now as I look back on it there was a life lesson in it. 

When the judges sat me down they told me that my drawings were not that good!  They said that my thoughts and concepts on the flow of the house would not work very well in the real world.  Basically they told me that my blueprints sucked!  BUT… they said the reason I made the top three was because I was so convincing in my presentation!  At the time I wasn't smart enough to grasp the insight in that comment, and when I went to the next level of competition I had lost all belief in my design and flopped in my presentation and finished out of the running.

When I was in my early 30's I had another run-in with blueprints, and once again I became passionately obsessed.  My family was growing and my current house felt like it was shrinking, and this time I became obsessed with not only designing a home, but BUILDING one for me and my family.  I spent a year researching home layouts and designs and looking for suitable lots to build on.  I bought some home architecture software and played around with different layouts and designs that I had seen.  I spent hours and hours during the day working on room sizes and layouts and I had a dozen different home designs in that program.  At night I would lay in bed and mentally walk through the different designs and engage all my senses in the look, feel, and smell of the various aspects of each of the home designs, and I loved them all.  When we finally found a lot in a location we liked, I just had to pick one that would fit the lot dimensions.

Once I had picked the design that would fit the lot, I became unstoppable.  I worked out every detail of that design; the dimension of every room, the placement of every outlet and light fixture, the width and style of every door and window.  I shared my design with my brother, who is a general contractor and who had the same software I did, and he made minor adjustments to ensure that the house was buildable and structurally sound.  But the design was all mine and once again I LOVED it.  From the first day that the hole was dug for the home to the day we finally moved-in 3 1/2 months later, I was at the construction site every day working on that house.  I was my own general contractor so I supervised the work of all the sub-contractors to make sure they were following my plan exactly.  I personally laid almost 800 square feet of tile myself, and pounded countless nails at night.  In the end, I would say that 95% of that home was exactly how I had designed (imagined) it - very few on-site changes needed to be made.  And I LOVE that house!

If you think about it, every man made thing that you see in this world begins the same way my home designs did - as thoughts or imaginations in someone's head.  City sky scrapers come from people who can see complete buildings in their heads before a single yard of cement is poured.  And then maybe another person with money who buys into that "vision" and pays to have it completed.  New lines of cars are first imagined by people who then get them designed and then someone else sets up the machinery in the factory to produce the new cars.

Going further, if you believe in a creator as I do, you can say that everything we see in this world and this universe began with a thought.  The creator imagined every detail of the plants, creatures, and terrain that we see here on earth BEFORE it came in to being.  He imagined every planet in our solar system, and every solar system in our galaxy, and everything else beyond that.  He imagined you...and THEN he created!

So the other night I woke up with this thought firmly in the front of my brain: If I want aspects of my life to turn out certain ways, I should create a blueprint for my life that depicts the way I want each aspect to be.  Isn't it more likely for me to get what I want if I lay it all out on paper, imagining very detail and seeing my life as I want it to be, and then working towards that vision every day?  

Now I know that creating a blueprint for my life will be much more "squishy" than blueprints for a home, but I don't think that's the major roadblock to creating one.  For me, and I'm guessing for most people, I think the biggest obstacle is doing the hard work to understand what I REALLY want!  Let's face it, it's hard to find time to think and create ideas for anything, let alone our lives.  I've heard it said that the average person spends more time planning their annual vacations than they do their lives, and I believe it!

So what do I (we) REALLY want?  More Money?  Sure, that would be nice, and I bet that would be the answer that most people would give off the top of their heads if they were asked the one thing they wanted most in life right now.  But why more money?  What will that bring us?  I think the answer to THAT question will get us closer to understanding what we really want in life.  And once we know what we really want and why, what's to stop us from creating a blueprint for our lives that includes all those things?  "All roads will get you there if you don't know where you are going."  So why not define where you want to go and what the destination looks like in your mind?   Why not imagine every detail of your ideal life and lay it out on paper?  Do you think you would be more likely to work towards those goals?  Do you think you would recognize when you are settling for less than your ideal, or on the flip side will you be more likely to recognize when you are on the right track?  I think it's worth a try.

Wish me luck :-)

Validate Your Inputs (Guard Your Heart)

I have been in the software development world for more years than I care to admit.  It was back in college during a programming course that I first heard the phrase "Garbage in, garbage out".  In computer programming, what this means is that each module requires that its inputs be received in an exact, expected way in order to perform its processing and produce the correct output.  If the inputs come in the wrong way, are of the wrong type, or pieces of it are missing, then the input is considered "Garbage" and the computer module won't be able to perform it's process the way it was intended.  If you are lucky, the program or module won't crap out, but at the very least it will not produce the right results - it will produce a "Garbage" result or output.  Hence the phrase.

Because of this, programmers write "Validation" lines of code in an attempt to ensure that the data that was input to the module is what was expected or needed for the module.  I would venture to guess based on experience that up to 50% of all lines of code ever written have the sole purpose of validating the inputs to a module.  This equates to trillions of lines of validation code out there today.  Given that, I find it amazing that there are still ways to "break" software and crash a module or even a whole network by putting the right (or wrong) "Garbage in".  There's another saying in the software industry that says that "There is no such thing as bug free code".  Have you ever seen your bank's website down?  The typical cause of these crashes is invalid data that wasn't caught that got into their system and created big problems.  Computer hackers and virus creators make their living finding and exploiting these "bugs" or holes in software.

So now you may be wondering, what does this all have to do with "Guarding Your Heart"?  I think plenty.

Think of your mind as the computer that runs You.  It runs the programs that operate all of your basic systems like your respiratory, circulatory and immune systems.  When you have an injury or illness, or when you challenge your body through physical activity, it runs the special programs that will help your body heal and recover.  It runs the systems that control your senses and processes the inputs of what you see, feel, hear, taste and smell into something you can comprehend.  It's fascinating when you think about all of the background processes your mind does with these inputs before it presents the results to you - all unconsciously and all in nanoseconds!

Your mind also controls the running of the programs for your "higher" processes like thought, imagination, and love and other emotional responses.  We like to think that we have conscious control of these "higher" processes, and to some extent we do, but if you've ever caught yourself in a day dream, or better yet ever "fallen" in love,  you know that many of these processes are also triggered unconsciously.  We don't have as much control over these "programs" as we think.

If you buy the analogy that your  mind is running all the programs inside of you for all of your different processes, do you think there is an optimal set of inputs these programs require to produce the correct output?  Are there different input requirements for your "base" programs (bodily functioning) and your "higher" processes (thought, emotions)?  What happens when you give these programs "garbage" input?

I think the inputs for your "base" programs are fairly obvious and could be summed up by the term "healthy living".  It's amazing to me how many people ignore these input requirements and the messages their bodies send them when the inputs are insufficient or of the wrong type.  Many in America eat way too much, eat the wrong kinds of foods, and never challenge their base programs through exercise.  And then they wonder why they can't seem to stay healthy.  We are all minds with bodies attached.  Human kind is much more than it's physical bodies, but without a functioning physical body it's pretty difficult to do what you want in life. 

For your "higher" programs, the "inputs" have more to do with what you let into your mind in terms of thoughts/ideas.  I think it's fairly proven that positive thought inputs help you think more clearly and also help you feel better emotionally.  The opposite is true when you let in negative thought inputs.  I believe the functioning of these "higher" programs also affects the outputs of the "base" programs.  You might be doing everything right from a "healthy living" standpoint, but if you are letting a bunch of negative "garbage" into your thought and emotional life, it can and usually does affect your health or how you feel physically.  Another way of saying that is that your thought/emotional life has a direct affect on your physical life.

My question for you is, how's your validation software working on these inputs?  Do you catch the negative "garbage" and throw it out before it causes problems in your internal processing?

There is much to unpack here and I hope to do more of it in future posts.  For this post I would just like to leave you with one simple suggestion to help weed out the negative "garbage" inputs:

Stop reading and watching the "news" religiously!

Oh, I can hear the groaning and the "What are you, crazy?" from many of you.  Before you turn me off, please hear me out and think about a few  things:

1. There may have been a time when journalism was an honest attempt to report what happened, but that day has been gone for a long time.  Each news outlet tries to get more sensational than the other because they know that sensationalism grabs readers / watchers.  They also know (or think) that people want the negative stuff in their news.  The next time you watch a national news program, take out a piece of paper and put a tally mark for every positive news event that gets reported.  No matter which network you watch, I can pretty much guarantee that your paper will be empty by the end of the program.  These guys have become the #1 virus threat to your mind!
2. Personally, I quit reading the newspaper over 15 years ago, and quit watching the news on TV over 10 years ago.  I don't think I'm crazy, and I consider myself to be up and on top of the current events that I care about.  When something big happens, I will hear about it through family, friends, or coworkers.  What I've found is that there are very few big "news" items that have any affect on my life or how I am living.
3. So if most of what is reported as news is sensationalized and negative, AND very rarely affects or changes how you will live your life, why do you need that input?

As I said earlier, there's much more that I'd like to unpack on this, but if you follow this one simple suggestion I believe you'll take the pressure off the validation software in your mind and allow yourself more processing power to work on all the other negative "garbage" inputs you have to deal with. 

Babies and Belief

The other day I walked into my house from work to find my 15 year old daughter standing near the door with the cutest little 6 month old baby girl in her arms.  The baby's name was Isla, and she looked at me as I came in and immediately smiled, and stole my heart.  I spent that evening "helping" my daughter with her babysitting tasks - I'm pretty sure I ended up doing more of the caring than she did, not because I didn't think she could do it, but because I just couldn't get enough of little Isla.  I know this sounds crazy for a guy my age, but I have had several thoughts since that night that I would like to have more kids.  I LOVED being a dad when my kids were little like that.

As I was sitting with little Isla in my lap, I thought about all the "discoveries" she was about to make.  Soon she will "discover" that she can sit up.  Then she'll "discover" that she can crawl, then walk, and then talk.  I put the word discover in quotes because in reality she is going to use every ounce of her determination to do what is necessary to get herself to the point where she can do those things.  What in her little mind could possibly make her BELIEVE that she can do what's necessary to actually achieve those things?  Why doesn't she look at it and say, "Oh, I'm too weak to do any of that.  I'll never be able to sit up or walk.  What's the use?"

Of course she doesn't say that to herself, and God willing she will grow into a strong and healthy little girl that runs and plays, and then she will grow into an adolescent and eventually an adult.  But somewhere along the journey of growing up, I'll bet good money that she'll lose that determination and belief in herself that she has as a baby.  Studies show that 90% of our own self-talk is negative, and instead of BELIVEING we CAN, most of us spend our time beating ourselves up and coming with reasons, excuses, and rationalizations on why we can't do certain things.  Sure, many of us have confidence in our own abilities to a point.  Some have more than others and end up achieving more in kind.  But my question is, do any of us really achieve our fullest God given potential?

The Bible says that we are all "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14) and also says that we are all "made in God's image" (Gen 1:27), and I believe that.  I don't believe that we are just a higher evolved form of animal.  So if we are made in God's image, which of the scenarios in little Isla's life best represent that?  Is it the determination and belief of the little baby, or is it the self-conscious and self-limiting beliefs of most adults?  If it's the determination and belief of the baby, and we aren't living our lives with that same determination and belief, are we actually dis-honoring God with our lives?  And what can we do to get ourselves back on the track of living with that belief in ourselves?

Well, if you were looking for me to have answers to these questions, I'm sorry to disappoint.  I struggle with the same self-limiting beliefs that I'm guessing most of you do.  I am determined to find the answers, however, so if I make any "discoveries" I'll be sure to blog about them.  I do think I've stumbled on a couple clues, and I'll leave you with them. 

As is apparent by the title of this post and what I've alluded to to this point, I think the first clue is BELIEF.  I looked up the definition of belief and found this:

acceptance of truth of something: acceptance by the mind that something is true or real, often underpinned by an emotional or spiritual sense of certainty

What do you believe about God's intention for your life, and what do you believe about yourself and your abilities?  Whatever the answer to those questions are, we live our lives accordingly.  I've heard people ask the question, "What would you attempt to accomplish if you knew (believed) you could not fail?"  That's a fun question to ponder in the hypothetical, but how much "belief" would be required for you to "know" with certainty you could not fail?

The second clue is TRUST, and it may be the required predecessor to belief.  There are many facets to trust that I need to explore and understand.  Do you trust that you are made in God's image, and therefore have the power of God within you?  Do you trust that God doesn't make any mistakes and that you are here for a purpose?  Do you trust that God wants what is best for you?  Do you trust the promptings of God in your heart, or do you listen to what others say you should or should not do?

We are all on a journey.  It would be a shame to get to the end of that journey and find out that we left a bunch of love, joy, and peace unfulfilled because of our own limiting beliefs. 

The Almost not Father of the Bride Speech

A little over a year ago, my daughter got engaged and she was married this past July.  I knew right away what I wanted to say in my "speech" at her wedding right after my new son-in-law asked me for permission to propose to her.  In fact, I put together the outline for it that very same night!  I had to wait 3 long weeks until he finally proposed and she accepted to tell my daughter my exciting news about the speech.  The night they came over to show us her ring and share the news, I excitedly told her "I already know what I'm going to say in my speech."  To which she replied, "Dad, you aren't going to be giving a speech at my wedding."  I was a bit incredulous and saddened, but knowing my daughter I fgured she already had a plan and me giving a speech at her wedding wasn't part of it.

Throughout the next year I listened to endless planning sessions and discussions about "the wedding".  I brought up my speech a few times in that year, but each time I was met with the same response, "Sorry Dad, you're not giving a speech."  I finally resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to be an "extra" in this whole thing.

About a week before the wedding, as the final plans were being made for the rehearsal and dinner and wedding day, my daughter brought up the fact that I had to give the "welcome" at the banquet (after the wedding but before the meal).  She just said, "You'll do the welcome at Dellwood and then hand the mic off to the pastor for the prayer."  I shrugged it off as trivial and said "sure, I can do that".

Then the day before the wedding, amidst the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the rehearsal and dinner, my daughter caught me alone and said, "Dad, will you take me to coffee tomorrow morning?".  I said, "Sure, what time?", and she said "How about 7?"  I said "It's a date!"

I got up early the next morning and sat deep in my thoughts about all that was happening.  She came down around 6:45 and we headed to coffee.  We started with small talk about different parts of the wedding and how the day was going to go, about different people we were going to see, and how we hoped it stayed a nice day.  I told her I was very proud of her and happy for her, and we talked about her goals and plans for life.  As we were getting ready to leave, she asked me, "So, do you have your father of the bride speech ready?"  I just stared at her and said, "What?!?  You said I wasn't giving a speech!"  She smiled coyly and said, "Oh, I thought I told you.  I found out it's customary for the father of the bride to give a speech during the welcome."  I said, "No, that must have slipped in the details.  If you want me to give one, I will, but I don't have one prepared."  She said, "Well, yeah, I would like you to give one - but just make it short, OK?"  I said, "OK" and we came home with about 4 hours to get ready for the rest of the big day.  She went on to get her hair, nails, and whatever else that brides get done, and I sat down to write a speech!

Well, I'll be honest and say that I did quite a bit of internet research on FOB speech protocol, and had written my second complete draft within the first hour of getting home.  I then went to practice it in front of the mirror in the bathroom, and turned into a puddle of tears the first several times I tried to get through it.  I finally felt like I had a handle on it and tried a practice run in front of my son - with the same result as the first few times in front of the mirror.  I thought "I'm never going to be able to get through this."  But by the third time with my son, I thought I had a handle on it and was ready.  I practiced it two more times in the bathroom at church before the wedding and felt like I was good to go - that I could even give it without reading it from the paper.  I tucked the pages into my suit coat and readied myself for the big walk and the ceremony.

When I got to the banquet hall, I stalked down the DJ to understand the logistics and process.  He calmly told me when I was supposed to get up, where I was supposed to stand, how I would get the mic, and how I would hand it off to the pastor when I was done.  I felt as ready as I would ever be.  When the time came, I got up, and I actually made it through the speech without crying like a baby - although I did have several moments where I was so choked up I couldn't get the next sentence out.  I think the pauses added drama to the speech :).  Anyway, without further ado, here's the speech I ended up giving:

"Hi Everyone,
For those of you I haven't met yet, my name is Joel ... and I am the "Father of the Bride".

First, let me say "Welcome!" to you all and thank you all for sharing in this happy day for Allysa and David.

And Second, to Kile & Jenny, Daniel, Becca & Seth, Ritchie, Jessie, and Lucy, and of course David, I'd like to officially welcome you to the Glass family!  We look forward to sharing many more happy times with you all.

Allysa and David - you two have always looked good together, but today you make an especially handsome couple.  Allysa, I think you are beautiful all the time, but today, you look absolutely radiant!  I could not be prouder of the person you are and I could not be happier for you than I am today.

Right now, I just want to share a couple of snapshot moments that I've had with Allysa.  She was really a "Daddy's girl" growing up so I have a lot of them, but there were two bright memories that flashed immediately to my mind that fateful day last June when David joined me on the porch as I was grilling, and, with his eyes fixed firmly down at his shuffling feet, asked for my permission to propose to Allysa.

The first snapshot was from back when Allysa was about 5 years old and still an only child.  It was a late spring day and she and I were outside playing in the warm weather - me shooting hoops and she riding the new bike that her Grandma Dorothy had given her for Christmas.  I went inside to get a drink and just as I got to the sink I heard this blood curdling scream from outside.  I ran to see what happened and when I opened the door, there stood Allysa, blood dripping down her face and neck from a huge gash in her upper lip (she had cut it on the horn of her bike when she bumped the curb).  My first thought on seeing her was, "Oh no, not her beautiful FACE!"  But what was really seared into my memory was the look she had on her face; especially her eyes.  They were wide open and locked on mine as if to say, "Dad?  Help Me!"  Well, I scooped her up in my arms, brought her in to wash off the blood, and then we rushed her to the emergency room where she got stitched up.  All the way to the hospital I kept reassuring her, saying, "Everything's going to be OK Allysa, everything is going to be OK."

By the way, you can still see her scar when it gets cold outside :)

Now flash forward with me to the summer after Allysa and David's senior year in high school.  They had already been dating for several years then and it was pretty clear to me that David was an important man in Allysa's life.  They spent that summer hanging out together and with friends as much as possible, but Allysa was going to school in Eau Claire in the fall, and David was going to UMD.  In addition, David was going to kick for the UMD football team, which meant that he had to leave a few weeks earlier than Allysa for training camp.  It was early on a Saturday morning in August when David packed up and headed for Duluth.  I was up when Allysa went over the the Nadeau's to say "Good bye" to him, and I was sitting at our computer in the kitchen when she came home.  She walked in to the kitchen and I turned to look at her and there it was - that same look on her face and in her eyes that she had all those years earlier - "Dad?  Help me!"  I grabbed her and hugged her as she sobbed and sobbed in my arms, and I just kept saying to her, "Everything's going to be OK Allysa, everything is going to be OK."

And that brings me back to that day last June on the porch with David.  There was quite the awkward pause before I answered him (he must have been sweating bullets), but it was because those memories were flashing through my mind.  And my NEXT thought was that the NEXT time Allysa needed help like that, she was going to turn to you, David.  I had to digest that and check myself to be 100% sure that I could trust you with that.  So I thought back through your relationship and how you have respected Allysa and treated her so well all these years, and I knew, I KNEW that I could not have asked for a better man and partner for Allysa.  So I said, "Of course, David" and gave him my blessing.

And here we are.  That was over a year ago and tons of planning and decision making has happened since then.  And, you MADE IT!  It was a beautiful ceremony and I am really looking forward to this reception.  I invite everyone here, young and old, to have fun and get out on the dance floor tonight and "Dance like no one is watching."

I'll conclude with a toast:

A toast to my daughter Allysa.  She was and is a gift from God and I am grateful and honored to be her Dad.  May God continue to bless her and David and grant them health, happiness, and most of all Love all the days of their lives.

Cheers!"

Seasons and Meaning

The other day I had a conversation with a gentleman, and the impact of that conversation seems to grow on me as each day passes.  At first blush it seemed totally benign, but as I thought more and more about the things he said, I began to see more and more significance and application in my own life.  I will never claim to know the "meaning of life", but this gentleman may have given me a clue.

I had taken the day off from work to take my truck in for repairs.  My plan was to sit at the dealership and wait, so I had brought my laptop and reading materials along.  I have been doing a lot of reading on things like personal leadership and God's intention for our lives for reasons I'll go into in another post.  Suffice it to say that I have been doing a lot of soul searching for the past year plus trying to figure out how I want to live the rest of my life - a changing of the seasons if you will.

It didn't take as long as I expected for my truck to be ready, so I was faced with  half the day left and nothing really to do.  I decided to go to the gym and work out.  I was excited because normally I am rushed to try to get my workout in as quickly as possible and on this day I could take my time.

In the locker room, I found myself getting dressed in the same aisle as a gentleman that I would guess was in his low to mid 80s.  He started a conversation with me, and I could just tell he wanted to talk, so I decided to take my time and chat with him.  We talked about what we were planning to do in our workouts (he was going to swim, I was going to lift), and he asked if I had to go back to work later.  I told him no, that I had taken the day off and he asked "You can do that?".  I smiled and told him about my truck and he told me about some of his experiences with car repairs. 

What he said next kind of stunned me - I asked him what he liked to do for fun, and he paused and then said "Well, I come here to the gym occasionally, but since my wife passed, I don't go out as much.  She just passed in June."  I could actually feel my heart breaking for this man.  I told him I was sorry for his loss, but that kind of ended the conversation.  I told him I needed to get going and he said he did too, and I told him to "have a good workout".

After my workout as I was drying off from the shower, he showed up again, drying himself off too.  We started a new conversation about how good it felt to work out, and he told me another story about car troubles from when he and his wife had driven to Florida.  We both lamented how it was too bad that car engines are so complicated today that it's almost impossible to repair anything yourself any more.  (Back in the old days you could do that you know.)  We shaved side by side at the sinks in the locker room and got dressed together, talking the whole time.  As we both packed up and took one last look in the mirror, I said to him, "Well, I'm taking off, you have a good rest of the day."  He looked at me and smiled and said, "Thank you, you too."  As I turned he said "Joel?", and I turned back to look at him and he said "Don't forget to have fun."

Hello World

I can't believe it's 2012 and I am composing my FIRST blog entry!  I have been involved with and sitting in the front row of the tech explosion since I was a boy and have been excitedly watching and participating in nearly all of the developments - yet never got around to blogging.  Maybe I didn't think I had anything worthwhile to write about, or maybe I was afraid that no one would care.

Well, popular opinion be damned!  Writing to me is therapeutic and so why not put some of it out there to take the arrows?  I have no idea what general themes I'll post about (or if I'll continue to post at all) - my passions and interests are varied and, to be honest, I'm a little scatter brained AND compulsive, which at times has proved to be a dangerous combination in my life.

In this my first ever blog, I'm going to talk about what I think is both the exciting and potentially dangerous role of technology in our lives.  My first view of a microprocessor was an Atari game console that my neighbor got for Christmas in the late '70's.  It came with "Pong" and "Breakout".  I was hooked and have been ever since!  Little did I know at that time that working with computers would become my livelihood down the road.

Since "Pong", technology has crept into our lives at an ever increasing rate.  When I first visited Disney's Epcot Center in 1980, the bold, futuristic technology on display was a kiosk with a TOUCH SCREEN mouse in a maze.  It only took about 30 years for that to become affordable and consumable.  With our smart phones and other mobile devices, we now carry on our persons much more computing power than would fit into a large room only 30 years ago.

When I was growing up, we had exactly one TV and one telephone in our house.  At last count in my home today, we have five TVs and four cell phones (for four people), not to mention four computers, three Ipods, and two gaming consoles.  That makes for a total of 12 internet connected devices in my home!

Obviously I think all of this is good or I would not have agreed to purchase these items.  Through the internet connections, we have at our fingertips more answers to questions today that 10 years ago would have required us to own an up-to-date full volume encyclopedia library.  There's really no excuse for us not to know how to do anything anymore.

We also have access to a wider range of thoughts than ever before.  Before the internet, we had to get all of our "information" from rigid sources like the official newspaper or network news.  Now we can go and find news when we want and from wherever WE choose.  We can see the contrary view to what we are told is "popular opinion" and find out that we're not alone if we disagree.  With social media like Facebook, we can also keep tabs on all of our "friends", even those that we'll probably never see in person again.  All of this is good.

So what do I think is potentially dangerous with all of this technology and where it is going? 

Well for one thing, and I may be just paranoid about this, but I have concerns about our privacy and our ability to live lives of liberty.  Everything we do online is tracked and recorded for eternity.  Companies like Google (who owns this blog site) track, use, and sell data about your online activity all the time.  As more and more of this "Big Data" is collected, how will it be used?  What if it gets into the wrong hands?  What if we as a nation lose our minds and elect people who want to crack down on "thought" ala "Fehrenheit 451"?  Think I'm crazy - just look at the "political correctness" and "hate crime" movements.  Both are directed at trying to get people to think in a conforming way.

Another concern I have actually stems from a conversation I had with a psychotherapist.  I told him that my theory on why we seemed to need so many people like him in our society today was because we had too much time on our hands to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.  100 years ago, people were too busy just working to survive and didn't have the luxury of liesure time.  He gave me some credit for the thought, but countered with his own theory that he thought it was because we've lost all sense of "community".  We live in apartments or neighborhoods or towns and we don't even know the names of the people who live next door, let alone anything about their lives.  I bring this up because I see much of the "Social" movement in technology as an attempt to fill this void, but I don't think it hits the mark.  God made us as relational beings, and while posting on someone's wall may be seen as relating, I think God intended us to related on a skin on bone level.  What happens to a society when we lose almost all personal touch and connection with others?

Even with the concerns, I'm still excited about the future possiblities for technology in our lives and I am excited to stick around and watch it unfold.