Motion, Movement and Progress

     If you follow this blog, then you know that I am a chronic muser.  I think often about lots of things.  I will pause here and shout out my 9th grade English teacher Mr. Freeman, who reminded us, ad nauseam that "often" is for frequency and "lots" is for quantity.  So, the theory about learning by osmosis is true because I would swear I wasn't listening.  Anyway, I digress.

    My five year old had a science project about just that.  As I helped, he began to explain that "everything always moves".  I thought that this was very profound for a 5 year old.  I also thought about how true it really is.  I began to think about my movement.

    I have been thinking about movement over the past few months.  I have always believed that profound realizations require profound movement.  I have also determined that sometimes the most profound movement is to be still.    This is probably the hardest thing for me to do.  I don't always have the patience to keep still.  I am always grateful for the people in my life who help me in and through the learning process that goes with keeping still.  For a long time I equated stillness with inaction.  Through the learning curve, I have come to realize that stillness can be progress and movement can just be motion.

    As the holiday rolls in and the year closes out, my thoughts have turned to Movement, Motion and Progress.  I have spent my year moving but my progress has been minimal.  That's if you do count the fact that I have gotten honest with myself about this small tidbit.  These coming months will be the test.  I will face several things--the biggest being myself.

     I have decided to make the move from motion to progress--forward progress.  This is likely going to leave some people unhappy.  As a mom, I am responsible for encouraging progress.  I have to make it as well.  I will no longer wish for better things and a better path.  I am going to listen to the messages--the positive ones--and bust a move.  Thank you for following and I hope that it wasn't just motion.  Get moving and get it done.

    

   

Life In The Age of Tech or "Why "Instant is Only Good for Pudding..."

      I am a lover of tech.  I am a profound hater of how some choose to use it.  I could run the gamut from the weaponization of e-mail in some workplaces to the the Patriot Act.  My mission today is more about the human cost of tech gone wrong.  My belief is that at some point we will or have all experienced the phenomenon.  The ultimate problem with technology is that it is developed for and used by people.  People, no matter how well intentioned are flawed.  Some more than others.   

     So, in a very profound way, the Clementi family is dealing with the human toll at the convergeance of youth, decisions  and technology. What started off as a prank ended in a young man's death and a leaves a family with more questions than answers.  I think there is a certain level of maliciousness that goes with posting a sex act on the internet.  This goes far beyond a prank.  Certainly its done to visit a certain level of humiliation on the person in it.  The clandestine nature of secretly doing that is an additional level of victimization only furthers that.

    In this age of instant we no longer fact check.  We no longer filter what we say or hear.  Because we are instant in our news, our food and our thirst for information we are short in our memories.  So their ordeal, while fresh for them is yesterday to us.  Take the lesson.  What happens in an instant can affect us for a lifetime.