Technology at it's finest...

This was an old post that was supposed to be published months ago...

I'm a computer programmer.  I develop software.  I spend my entire day emersed in a world of 1's and 0's and when I'm not programming for them, I'm fixing them.  I love almost every second of it too, so believe me, I realize the irony in this statement:

I don't like technology.

I should clarify that statement.  I mean most technology. 

My boss joked the other day, pointing out my love of paper and pen when clearly, as an IT and programming professional, you would think I would use something electronic to track this kind of information on.   I like my pen and paper.  I like the feel of the pen as I write.  I like the placement of the text as I write.  I like the emotion that's conveyed in the formation of the letters.  I like that I remember nearly everything I write because I see it and I feel it.  He can joke all he wants - he's the one writing on his iPad with a stylus.

In my first year of college, I had the highest mark my Calculus teacher had ever handed out in his 20 years of teaching. He pulled me aside and very sternly said that while he realized I didn't have the ability to commit to a mathematics, computer science or computer engineer degree, he wanted me to at least meet with the head of the Computer Engineering Technology department. I politely declined. I'd rather visually create (draft) than code... or so I thought. It's always stuck with me though - that conviction in his voice. I never really understood the correlation between programming and mathematics until a much later time in my career.  That's what programming is.  It's one giant equation, and I'm in the middle of it.

I love efficiency.  I hate redundancy.  If something has to be repeated more than once in your day, there has to be a way to automate it.  It's not that I'm lazy, because I'm certainly ready and willing to work very hard.  My day is so jam packed with objectives, duties, and activities, that I don't want to stuff another repetitive task into it... I don't want to fill it with mindless numbing activities either.  I didn't improve or hope to make something more efficient so that I can fill that saved time with some other task.  I'd like to alleviate some of the feelings of "there aren't enough hours in a day", and allow someone to breath a little.

Unfortunately, that's not the direction that technology has taken us.  It has freed up time, only to have that time consumed with more duties and tasks, movies and games, and social feeds.  We've freed up time that we normally would have spent talking to a friend or family member to go on Facebook - 'like' a couple of statuses and leave some random comments.  That's what our life is reduced to.

I went to my very first 3D movie this year.  It was amazing... brilliant... the technology is unfathomable really.  Pop on this pair of glasses that look perfectly normal, and suddenly the picture goes from a blurry mess to the Hulk barrelling towards me.  I sat in awe for the first 30 minutes until I became bored with the movie.  Graphics were great, but honestly the plot just wasn't for me.   I spent 2.5 hours in a theater with people I do care about, not uttering a word.  Everyone silent and consumed in the projected image before us.  I would much rather have spent the time talking to these people, learning more about who they are beyond the little worker bees they become during work hours.

Put down the cell phone.  Put down the iPad.  Quit cramming more into your already overloaded day.  Relax, slow down, and spend some time with the people you love the most, doing the activities you love to do.  In the end, all you have is memories - both yours and the people you've created them with.  Don't let technolgy take those away from you. 

The Value of Time

"Graysen - please get off the table," I utter.  Amazingly he listens.   It's taken months to get to this point.  There were many moments I am sure our neighbors questioned both our parenting and our health practices.  Graysen could routinely be found atop our dining room table... completely buck naked.

It's finally sinking in.  Persistence to the nth degree has finally paid off.  We are on the last leg of the baby stage of our life.  Warily, we are moving on.

Every stage we move through is bringing a series of emotions.  Worries and concerns creep in.  The "unknowns" overwhelm.  Options and abilities open up.  Breaths of relief are sighed.  Memories are all that remains.

Some of these memories are crisp, clear and vivid - others fade.  I gain new perspectives on these as experience teaches me lessons... Lessons which no amount of internet research or book reading can reveal.

My lesson of the year: I am learning to value my time.  

The time I spent being persistent in removing a naked child from atop my table was worth it.  The time I spent rocking my child for hours in the dark nights was worth it.  The time I probed my children for what's really wrong when they offered no words, was worth it.  The time spent preparing meals, washing clothes, and wiping snotty noses was worth it.

I value the time of here and now, and I'm learning it has no definite length.  

My own mother, for whom we knew the days were numbered, was one day gone.  There is no partly gone or coming back.  It's final.  It's done.  She's gone, and I will never in my life on earth see her, feel her, or hear her again.  I still grieve that loss.

But...

My time with her was worth it.   I have the most wonderful, perfect, and powerful memories to live on with.

Money can't buy you time, as it has no monetary value.  Yes, you can pay for something in increments of minutes, hours, or days, but you cannot buy time itself.  Its only bi-product - which has any real value - is memories.  

Money may make aspects of life easier, but it complicates things.  

Belongings can be treasured, but clutter spaces.  

Memories are all you leave behind, and all you take with you.  

Cherish today.  Make today memorable.  Tomorrow may never come.

Your time is valuable.