Sitting on the Porch

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I once interviewed for a strategic technical position with a very large (and unnamed) national company, and told my interviewer that “technology is worthless unless it has the potential to effect a positive change in the human condition.” Perhaps that was the reason I didn’t get an offer from them. Or maybe it was the toilet paper on my shoe.

Or maybe it’s that I joined the over-fifty crowd almost two years ago, and I may see the advance of technology differently than someone who has only seen a green screen in a computer museum.

My fascination with technology only started around 1977. In her lifetime, my grandmother saw the practical application of electricity, indoor plumbing, automobiles, air and space travel, and the exponential growth of the electronic world. I am continually fascinated by man’s capacity to invent and discover. And I am equally horrified to see that we have managed to take the good things God created for our use and find ever more efficient ways to dominate and even destroy ourselves and others with them.

It’s been said that the more a culture discovers and explains the world, the less it depends on God. That could be true for a couple of reasons.

• The more we know about our environment, the less fear we may have of the unknown. And the more thrilled we are with our own intellectual superiority, the fewer mysteries we attribute to our creator.
• Much like an episode from the Twilight Zone, we may no longer be able to function without the technologies we have invented. Instead of becoming masters of the gadgets we have created, we have submitted to them.

Are we dependent on our own brilliance rather than seeking the true source of Wisdom? Are we submissive to the environment that we created, or do we rest in the arms of the Creator?

Advances in Science truly fascinate me, but the most exciting thing for me is this: Each new discovery opens up many more layers of the unknown. The more we discover, the more we realize how much we don’t know. For me as a Christian, I marvel at the work of God in each new discovery of science, and my weak faith grows as I hear about new mysteries being studied.

Disclaimer: During the writing of this article I answered a few phone calls, checked my Twitter feed and read this article on my iPhone, changed my Pandora station to Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, checked email, and used a Bluetooth headset to advise a client about an upcoming album release on iTunes. I’m about to make a cup of tea from an instant water heater in the kitchen and read my favorite tech blogs on my Kindle.

You now have permission to quote Matthew 7:5 to me. “You hypocrite, first take the iPhone out of your own ear, and then you will hear clearly to remove the headset from your brother’s ear,” or something like that.

This week is Holy Week, in which Christians of all denominations celebrate the very human passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is at the same time the greatest Mystery of all. This would be a good week for us all to practice unplugging from the technology we depend on and stand in awe of the Mystery of the Resurrection.

Hit a snag today in my quest to save the world by being nice.

My trip to east Memphis and back (about 40 minutes each way) today revealed that:

• Those who drive faster than me on the interstate are called “maniacs.”
• Those who drive slower than me on the interstate are called “morons.”
• Those who don’t pay attention negotiating a parking lot are called “idiots.”
• When I don’t pay attention negotiating a parking lot it’s called an “honest mistake.”

Not one of my banner days for being nice. Some days are like that.

From birth to death, the path we take intersects the paths of thousands of others.  It is an infinite latticework of paths meeting and diverging.

On our paths we encounter some people only for a split second.  We are with others for minutes, weeks or years, and still others for a lifetime. But what is certain is that we will eventually part company with everyone we meet. When paths converge, even for a second, do we make the lives of others better or worse?

Ok, so I’m a “glass half full” person, except for those few times when I’ve thought that the glass was half full of poison. Not counting those times, I like to think we might have a positive effect on the world if we try to leave others better off than they were before they met us, regardless of whether that person is a spouse, family member, friend, business associate, casual acquaintance or total stranger.

In my world I still have a half-full hope that I can change the world by being nice to people, even (gack!) people that I don’t like to be around. While on my path did I remember my friends’ birthdays or ask them about their kids or their health? At home did I put the toilet seat down?  When in public did I smile as I passed someone in an elevator or say “good morning” to a stranger I passed in the aisle of the store?  What about the people that I don’t even know are watching me?  Did someone see me open the door for that lady at the post office, or did someone notice that I gave up a good parking space for someone else?

Or while on my path, did I cut someone off in traffic or rush to get in line before them at the grocery store (that’s not a great example because my line will be the slowest). At home, did I make off with the last Snickerdoodle?  Did I eat an entire jar (the last one on earth) of my wife’s late aunt’s homemade salt pickles made from a recipe that doesn’t exist anymore? There is a dreadful and horrible reason for that example to be so specific but just for clarity it only involves me as a spectator.

Side note: My friend Jeff Cavins said that “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison, hoping your enemy will die.” His Blog is here.

And such is my happy logic. Since past performance is probably a good indicator of future behavior I expect to have failure and success, but maybe trying to stay aware of the concept will make for more successes.  Although I won’t be saving the world right off the bat, I can try to keep my corner of it clean, and I might even be better for having made the attempt.

So in my quest to save the world by being nice to people, one of these statements will always be true when computing my success/failure ratio:

1. I’m not the fabulous person I think I am, or
2. I’m not the fabulous person others think I am

There are lots of smarter, older, more popular and deader people than me who thought that being nice was a good thing. The concept of Karma has been around since a thousand years before Christ and is embraced by major world religions. It holds that our current deeds actively shape our past, present and future experiences. The quote attributed to Confucius as early as 500 BC is “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” Paul’s letter to the Galatians (v6:7) says “You reap what you sow.” When we were kids we learned that the Golden Rule is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and in the South we knew that “what goes around comes around.”

With a pedigree as long as that I should seriously pay more attention to the concept. So moving forward, when I interact with someone for a lifetime or for a second, I promise to try and be nice.

Ever wanted to follow the evolution of swing bands prior to the big band era?  Do yourself a favor and give this station a listen. Most of the selections are from the era leading up to the polished big band sound, and every now and then you get a chance to hear some of the big stars in their infancy.

On the early side, you get pure 1920′s ragtime, and on the late side you get Bing and a little Sinatra.  The time in between is fascinating – a very young Judy Garland is doing “Swing Mr. Charlie” right now.  Right before that was a Milky Way commercial from what sounds like the late 30′s.  The playlist is really long.

Caution: Rant: In the ragtime bands and through the mid 30′s, there were baritones (euphoniums) in many of the bands, with feature solos.  At some point they got dumped.  Shameful…. Shameful….

For most of my work week, I switch off between this station on Live365 and a Django Reinhardt station on Pandora.

UPDATE: Check out the Cladrite Radio Blog at www.CladriteRadio.Com.

Enjoy!

“I think that’s the real circle of life; Your parents fake their way through it, you fake your way through it, and hopefully you don’t raise a serial killer.”

- Phil Dunphy

My favorite terrestrial radio station is WEVL 89.9FM in Memphis.  Completely volunteer and all of the programmers are passionate and knowledgeable about their music. This station relies solely on listener donations.

Get the program guide, though, or hit the website www.wevl.org. You don’t want to miss what you love the most.  These people are very good at what they do.  You’ll hear music you’ve never heard before, or haven’t heard in ages.

This is the answer to commercial radio. So donate NOW!

Fabulous quote from the late great Dr. Adrian Rogers in 1984:

“Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. And what one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don’t have to work because the other half’s going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because somebody’s going to get what I work for. That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”

The audio of this quote, and the full text of his message is here at Love Worth Finding Ministries.

Christian music is the only genre of music that is defined solely by the content of its lyrics. Go to any record store and look at the sections. Jazz, Classical, Country, Blues, Hip-Hop, Christian. There are jazz, country, top 40, classical and Christian radio stations.  Secular stations are secular, and Christian stations are well, Christian.

Although we Christians are commanded to be “in the world but not of the world,” Christians have done a fairly good job of not being in the world, at least in public (see Baptist drinking joke #19).  Or maybe the world has done a better job of segregating Christians.

The PC police have convinced us that there is a constitutional separation of church and state, and we’re afraid of being sued.  But we appear to be cool with that. Here in the U.S. of A. we Christians generally act nice between 10:30 and noon on Sunday morning.  The rest of the week we’re technically off duty.

I always wanted to find a radio station that played a good mix of secular and Christian songs.  The secular songs would be the non-sex, non-cop-killing, non-droopy-shorts kind, and the Christian songs would be the non-thirty-minute-praise-chorus, non-“glowry”-hallelujah, non-big-hair and non-wide-vibrato kind.

Unpaid Endorsement #1: There’s a great station in Memphis now called The Pig (87.7FM, if you’re in town, www.radiopig.com elsewhere) that comes as close as I’ve ever heard.  It’s running as if some wacko with a music collection as bizarrely diverse as mine put the whole thing on shuffle.  You can get Van Morrison back-to-back with The Happy Goodman Family.  It’s like musical roulette. Today I heard the old Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.”  Sweet!  Try it out, but be ready for musical whiplash.

I used to have a media rep call me on a regular schedule to pitch ad space for the several different publications he worked for. I would say, “Hey – how you doin’?” And without fail, and I mean without fail EVERY time, he would say, “Blessed and highly favored of God, my friend… how are you?”… … Chirp… Chirp… Well, isn’t that sweet. And sincere.  This is the religious version of something like, Q: “How are you?”  A: “If I was any better I couldn’t stand it.” Ick.

Another one I like is “Have a blessed day.” That’s secret code used by checkers at the supermarket that really means, “I’m a Christian and I want you to know it, but the store manager would fire me if I said “God bless you.” And they know if you’re a Christian too by the response you give them. If you say “You too,” or “Thanks,” that’s the non-religious-sounding return code word, you both know you’ve just done the secret handshake, and it’s a warmy.

On the other hand, if you look at them like Jack Nicholson at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it’s a real good bet that you’re going to get prayed at on your way out of the store.

Questions: Why are there people in the religious world who can be so remarkably offensive; and why is there a secular world in which you have to speak about your faith using code words for fear of offending someone?