Typewriters, Tweets, and Television

The medium is the message.

So said Marshall McLuhan in 1964.

A letter, typewritten, will be different than one handwritten.  Different than a voicemail; different than an email.

Say I were to deliver to you a piece of information: "The current presidential contenders do not like one another."  Were I to speak this sentence to you in person, we would interact: you would offer a response and a conversation would likely ensue.  Instead, I have delivered this information to you somewhat anonymously in printed form.  if you wish to interact with me on this, you'll have to do some work in leaving a comment on this post or emailing me or perhaps remembering to bring it up in our next encounter.

The manner in which we transmit information will unquestionably influence the manner with which we interact with this information.  You will interact with the six o' clock news quite differently than, say, a twitter feed with the same content, delivered by some mix of online personalities.

Today, some fifty years after McLuhan's statement, we have a vast array of communication media and devices that create spaces for interaction once thought impossible.  As we begin to use new media for our messages, the messages themselves will transform and our interactions with said messages will follow suit.  Cultural dialogues and understandings will not be unaffected.  Five-year-olds today, for instance, can often operate a smartphone, but their drawing abilities, in general, have degraded when compared to those of children a decade ago - ask my family members who happen to teach preschool.

Before they could advertise on your Instagram feed...

As technology changes our forms of communication, communication itself will be transformed.  For some, this is an exciting new frontier; others view this as a foreboding wasteland of triviality.  I say, let us pay attention to new forms of communication and how they change our interactions and our selves.  Much of these new forms may well breed new vibrancy, creativity, and connection, but we must be wary of degrading our depth of relationship and true soul-knowledge of one another.  Seek to keep the good and jettison the counter-productive.

Sure, send your friend a Snapchat video.  But then, go on a long hike and listen to their heart.

Chasing Joy

It's easy to choose a job because of the paycheck.  It's easy to seek to be part of an organization for the power or prestige.  Often, we chase these things, assuming they will bring happiness.  Yet here we are in a culture that is seeing a lot of upheaval, loneliness, anxiety, and confusion.

Apple Orchard Falls, VA

A story I recently read described a couple trying to determine their next business venture, looking at their decisions through the usual metrics of profit and marketability and break-even points.  But then the author added a question to the mix:

What brings you the most joy?

If you search back through your memories, what was happening on those most joyous days?  Those days when you felt as though you were right where you needed to be?  Right where God created you to be?

It is a great joy and privilege for me when others entrust me with their story and give me the opportunity to walk with them as they pursue God or pursue career dreams.  It's also a thrill to set a scene for a movie or theatre production, making sure all the details are accurate and alive.

Others I know come alive when talking about education.  Or playing music.  Or writing stories.  Or building a business.  They've found joy in their hobbies and their occupations.

If you're in a joyless place, pause a while.  Listen to your memories.  Go through some picture books.  Ask your parents what you loved as a kid.  Find those things that consistently brought you joy and life over the years.

In looking back, you just might find a path forward.

What brings you the most joy?

Write letters like it's 1937.

He Will Withhold No Good Thing

I have a tendency towards pessimism.  I can focus far too easily on that one thing which went wrong instead of the multitude of things that went right.  Significant failures can plague me for weeks and even years.

Such-and-such isn't working

So-and-so is too difficult to deal with

This-and-that are endlessly frustrating

Light dispels darkness.

Yesterday, a friend reminded me to look around and choose to be thankful for all the undeserved gifts that come daily.  Posted prominently on the wall at home, she has these words written:

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
    from those who walk uprightly.   - Psalm 84:11

She finds life and encouragement in these words, believing as I do that God is a good Father who gives good gifts to His children.  This stuck with me and as I went on with my day, it rang through my mind - No good thing does he withhold.

Discovering a new forest path on a rainy afternoon.  Wonderful conversations with close friends.  Previously abandoned hopes unexpectedly fulfilled.  Cool breeze in the early mornings.  Unexpected camping trips.  As I think on events large and small over the last month, I see many of them as wonderful and undeserved gifts.

Look for those gifts.  Look for those good things - even and especially when life is difficult.

What gifts have you been given recently?

This life has much goodness, if we have eyes to see.

Build Your Central Park

It's 7 PM.  A pair of sparrows stop briefly by to twitter on about something important while joggers and canines breeze by.  Sun shines from behind as I sit on our deck.  Reflecting.  Resting, if only for a short while.

Thoughtful wanderings at dusk at the Howard County Conservancy.

It is easy to say yes to so many activities that we suddenly find ourselves running too fast to think or even process the very events surrounding us.  Such has happened to me far too often in recent years; consequently, I've discovered that I must deliberately carve out time to not doing anything that I'd consider stressful.

Two weeks ago, I shared several lessons learned reading Jon Acuff's Start.  Another huge reminder in his book was this advice from his friend, Al Andrews:

Build Your Central Park

New York City has a giant green space in the midst of skyscrapers, a world of relaxation nestled in the midst of a kingdom of frenzied movement.  What if that city had no central park?  What if our lives have no built-in place of respite and recreation?

What recharges you?  How do you rest?  For me, taking time to be out in the wilderness, writing, playing music, or good conversation with a close friend is soul-restoration.  I need this time to thrive.  Without it, I merely survive.

Build yourself a Central Park.  Guard it.  Nurture it.  And perhaps you'll find the times in which you work and strive and create to be all the more focused and impactful.

We need to take breaks from our busyness to recreate, recenter, and revive.