Into The Unknown

Looking at the stats of my blog is mesmerizing and almost incomprehensible.

If you sit and really contemplate the whole picture, it is still hard to grasp that technology is so readily available through a machine known as the computer.

I look at the scrolling NeoCounter on my blog every day and watch as the countries slowly scroll…South Africa, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Japan, Turkey, Canada, Austrailia… There are people in those countries that have accessed my blog and read it. They know about my daughter’s prom dress, our strawberry picking experience and the meal we ate at The Jefferson. Like me, they may have never traveled to another country and yet they are able to sit at a computer and look into my world many thousands of miles away.

It is mind boggling.

I attended a high school graduation this weekend. I remembered my “big day” and the excitement, hope and anticipation I felt for a future full of possibilities. One speaker directed her comments during the commencement exercises to maintaining determination and perseverance throughout life. Bill Gates was her example and she cited his accomplishments not only in the computer field, but also his volunteer work. Whether you like Bill Gates or not, it does not diminish the fact that he changed history with all he has accomplished in the computer industry.

I remember the days before the computer, VCR, CD, iPod, cell phone, video games, text messaging, microwave oven and cable television. I actually remember watching the first man walk on the moon on a black and white television. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. Life and the style in which we live it has dramatically changed even if we only compare it to the lives of our parents.

When my mother talks to her grandchildren about the days when there were outhouses, newspapered walls, drive-in movies, bobby socks and penny loafters, washing clothes on a scrub board, rock and roll music being banned, transistor radios, hula hoops and silly putty, it is impossible for them to comprehend that life.

There are an abundance of opportunities and technological advances that bombard us each day and most of them make our lives easier and faster. While enjoying the large array of modern conveniences, I hope that we don’t forget the things that really matter. I hope that we do not pursue only immediate gratification. There are so many wonderful experiences in life and it would be a waste to miss them while surfing the net, listening to the iPod with the HD television muted in the background, dinner cooking in the crock pot, ice cream churning in the ice cream maker, and the cell phone ringing in the next room too low to be heard.

My advice for graduates, as well as everyone else, is two fold:

Be prepared for disappointment and frustration.
Be persistent and bounce back even more determined to succeed.
~Paul Clitheroe~

Enjoy the little things, because one day
you may look back and realize they were the big things.
~Robert Brault~~

That’s rather self-explanitory which is why tomorrow I’m going to make a point to look at flowers along the road, smell the fresh air, listen to the tweeting of the birds, talk to my neighbor and chat with my family while we play a game after dinner…and I will be really, really, really, grateful that we don’t have outhouses any more. Thank you Albert Giblin!