Categories
culture technology

New-Tech Day

I think that today marks the first time that three new technology concepts that I could get excited about have land on my desk in one day. Two of the three are quickly spreading around the internet while the third has yet to gain a widespread following (as far as I know). The first item is Livescribe. The idea of smart paper infused with an invisible grid is not particularly new, but the people at Livescribe expect to have a time-synchronized audio recording to go with the smart paper and they hope to have the smart paper available at prices comparable to regular paper. The pen would be a scant $200 and they expect to be in the market by the end of this year.

The second item is an addition to Google Maps called Street View. Some members of my family will probably be familiar with the view I linked to. I can’t wait until they expand the coverage of this. It will make trip planning much different. As it is, I can sit in my own home and explore New York City.

The third item is Microsoft Surface. The concept of multi-point interactive touch screens that this is based on was demonstrated in February of 2006. I have been excited about the possibilities of this technology for months now, but Microsoft has added the interaction with objects on the surface which makes this idea even more appealing. Like Livescribe, they hope to have this to market by the end of this year although it will not be targeted at the consumer market by then.

Categories
life

Look to the Foundation

I’m not sure what started this train of thought in my mind, but I have been thinking about how things get misrepresented in public understanding. I’m sure that makes no sense to lots of people, but perhaps some examples may illustrate what I mean.

I have often heard someone excuse something they wanted to do by exclaiming that we live in a free country. What does it mean to live in a free country? Examine the foundation – in this case that would be the Constitution.

Currently we are hearing more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS church) in the news largely because we have a church member running for President. Once that discussion gets started there are many people inside and outside the LDS church who are eager to elaborate on the beliefs and practices of the church. It is easy to bring up the practice of polygamy in early church history. Unfortunately, we always talk about this past practice in the light of current social values and circumstances rather than in the context of the times when it was practiced.

Another topic for discussion is the history of blacks holding the priesthood. Once again there is no mention that at the time that practice began, in the 1830’s, the belief that blacks were not equal to whites in the eyes of God was quite widespread. Those who argue that other churches gave their priesthood to blacks never consider that they also had segregated congregations which would almost require that they give pastoral authority to blacks for the black congregations. The LDS church has never had segregated congregations. The only segregation of congregations is segregation of geography. In other words we have all white congregations in all white areas and all black congregations in all black areas. So long as there is a mixture of races within the geographic boundaries of the congregation there is a mixture of races in the congregation – possible exceptions would be if there was a language rather than a geographic segregation.

The other thing that is never considered is that other churches give their priesthood based on education. Those colleges who receive federal money and provide theological degrees would have been required to give degrees to black students even if they didn’t like the idea. Maybe we need to be careful to look at those different foundations to realize that we are comparing apples to oranges.

If you desire to know about the beliefs of the LDS church you have to look to the foundation which is the Articles of Faith. Whatever other information you might receive, whether from members of the LDS church or not, should be tested against that foundation.

UPDATE 5/30/2007: I just found this column on candidate religions as a political consideration (yes, it was focused on Mitt Romney and the LDS church). I think that my recommendation to look to the foundation is more valuable when investigating the religion from a theological perspective, but the guidelines in that column seem just right for evaluating a religion from a social or political perspective.

Categories
life

More Than a Hero

As I have continued to think about the heroes after my post yesterday I have tried in my own mind to clarify the definition of hero more fully. One thought that I had was that a hero was someone you could emulate – someone you could hope to follow or who you could hope to become. Another thought was that the ultimate hero in my life is my Savior.

The moment that I tried to add Christ mentally into my list of heroes I encountered a problem. While a hero is someone that I would wish to emulate – and Jesus certainly qualifies there – Christ presents a problem in that all of the people who I might classify as heroes I have hope that I could do the things that they have done to be heroes to me. With Christ that is only partially true. I can hope to care for others as He did and strive to obey the commandments of God as He did, but His heroism goes well beyond anything that I could ever hope to do. He gave a gift to me and the world that I could never hope to give – the opportunity to return to our heavenly home. All the good that I could ever do would pale in comparison. More importantly, all the good I could ever do would be worthless if He did not also give the gift that He gave to the world.

He has thus separated Himself from all others who I might call heroes because whatever is good and worthy of emulation in them I could hope to duplicate in my life. My conclusion is that there must be a separate category for Christ. Either He is the Hero and all others could be classified as models, or else they are heroes and He has a designation all His own – perhaps LORD.

Categories
culture

Heroes and Idols

Laura and I were having a fascinating conversation with good friends which rolled around to the topic of teaching children about their future roles as adults. We got to talking about the types of role models that children have and the messages that they are being fed from our society about those adult roles. Out of that conversation came the following gem – speaking about a person being sensitive to the needs of those around them and responding to the needs of others rather than being focused on their own needs and their own image:

“That’s the difference between being a hero and being an idol.” Denise Black

The meaning being that an idol is someone who we might look up to who is more concerned with their image than their substance while a hero is more concerned with being worthy of emulation than they are with their level of popularity. In case anyone is wondering, there are those among the ranks of our social idols (musicians, athletes, actors) who qualify as heroes under this definition. The key is to help our children understand the difference between the idols and the real heroes.

Categories
life

Too Helpful

I have been thinking a lot lately about one of the lessons that I have learned as a parent. Sometimes it is very easy to be too helpful to our children. We may want to tell them more than they can understand, or assist them in doing something when the real lesson they should be learning is to continue in the face of challenges. The beauty of this problem is that we make these mistakes with universally good intentions.

Categories
life

Define “Neighbor”

Reading the parable of the Good Samaritan today I noticed something interesting. The Savior did not answer the same question that the lawyer first posed to Him. The lawyer sought to justify himself by asking who his neighbor was (Luke 10:29) hoping to define the scope of those whom he should love as himself. I had understood the lesson of the parable to indicate that the answer was that all are my neighbors. This is true, but it is not the whole substance of what Christ answered.

At the end of the story, Christ returns a question to the lawyer, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?” (Luke 10:36) The thing that caught my attention was that this question reframes the idea of neighbor. It is not for me to strive to determine who falls within the definition of who is my neighbor. It is for me to become neighbor unto all whom I might encounter. In other words, the question is not, “who is my neighbor?” but rather, “who am I neighbor to?”

Categories
meta

Cleaning House

I love finding new resources from the people I read. Today that led me to Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog. The result is that I am rethinking what I am doing here. My focus has been fairly vague and I have felt it in my writing. Also, between this post and the Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers I have a couple of changes I would like to make to the presentation of my site.

I am rethinking my categories and hoping that I can clean things up so that there is less clutter and more clarity. Wish me luck.

Categories
life

Needed: Waterless Bathing System

Someone needs to come up with a way to get kids clean without involving water or a bathroom. My kids have just used the necessity of a bath as an excuse to break every possible rule in the bathroom. Toothpaste behind the toilet, toilet paper down the sink and water, or the remnants of water, in various unwaterable places.

Truth be told, this is not really about bathing. It’s about a certain unnamed person who has decided after two months of nearly angelic behavior, in which no significant disciplinary action had been necessary, that it is time to find out if the rules will be enforced. This bathroom incident – in which not a single bathroom-related rule was left unbroken – is just one of many tests to see if we have just forgotten to apply the rules.

There was outward disappointment to discover that all privileges magically evaporated for the night. I doubt there will be very many more infractions before the inward rebel goes back into hibernation.

Categories
life

Faith of a Child

Kids are amazing. While I was running this morning I was thinking about what my 18 month-old daughter did last Sunday when I was at an early morning meeting. I again realized what an impressive feat it was.

When I got home from the meeting Laura told me that Mariah had waited on the couch for me for over half an hour. She just sat there, watching out the window, waiting for me to come home. She probably thought I was running – which is usually the case when I am gone before she wakes up – and fully expected to see me running down the street towards the house. Occasionally she would ask Laura to tuck the blanket in around her, but she was content to wait for my return. She almost made it too.

As I thought about it I wondered how often I don’t do as well at waiting for others (my children for example) as my daughter did at waiting for me. How often do I fail to display the kind of faith that she displayed that everything would be as she wanted it to be if only she gave it the necessary time.

Categories
life meta

Speaking of Lessons

Recently I was introduced to Bokardo, a blog about social web design. I have enjoyed what I have found there. Two recent posts combine to give 18 Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers. I consider myself more than a “would be” blogger but I am looking at learning from some of those lessons. After reading those posts I have decided to share two lessons I have learned over my years of blogging. One lesson is for aspiring bloggers and the other is for blogging advocates such as Joshua at Bokardo.

To the aspiring bloggers, one great lesson I have learned is to write consistently. For me that means that I strive to write daily. Sometimes I do better than others, but that is my target because that rhythm seems to fit me. Find your own rhythm, but don’t write on a completely random basis. Some would argue that this regularity will help to keep readers interested. I’m sure that’s true, but I stress this lesson for another reason. Write regularly because it keeps your mind active in noticing and generating ideas for writing.

To blogging advocates, one vital lesson that I have learned is that blogging does not suit everybody. I think that most people, if not all, should try blogging on to see if it fits them but I have learned from the experience of many people I have known that it will not always fit. There are many reasons why this is but we should accept that some people, even people who want to blog, find that it does not fit them. The best part of that lesson for me has been that it’s okay. Blogging fits me, but I don’t have to second guess myself or my friends if they discover that blogging does not fit them.