Yup, I’m coming back again

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It would appear that I have been getting back to this blog less than twice a year and I feel it is time to come back and try to be a bit more regular. II have been writing, truly I have been writing everyday and some of that writing could have gone on this blog and some on the Technojungle blog. I write a little in the morning and a little at night. I can’t explain why I have not been blogging. I hope that may change with this entry.

The last update was pretty comprehensive. I continue mostly in and same directions.

Fir

My hair is now very long, over a foot in many places. However, would you believe it, I have no photos of my hair. I have been enjoying it, although I am surprised at how much comes out when I wash and brush it. I figured recently that, if I only lost ten strands per day, and that might just be a conservative guess, I could have lost 4000 strands since I started. I tried to imagine what that many strands of hair might look like. These thoughts had me thinking that I should get on with cutting it off and donating it before I have little to give. Still, I like having my hair and tending to it. If I cut it off, I might grow it again. Someone mentioned that November is Movember for men’s health and typically means growing and then shaving off a moustache. I think I had better get some photos of my hair before the end of next month.

Writing (& Book)

My book is still in editing mode, although I have not really worked much on it for a week or so, the longest and perhaps only break I have taken since getting on a schedule of writing and then editing the book. I’m not really sure when I will be ready. I might just have to bite the bullet, as they say. Although, I’m sure I could tighten it up. I may add a glossary. The idea of an index just got squashed as I read about what is an actual profession, craft and art called indexing. It could cost over a thousand dollars for this. I’ll hold off for now.

Music

I mentioned something about my dream cornet and that I was going to do a separate entry for this amazing event in my life. As you may have noticed, I did not get to it. I suppose what happened is that I had this cornet out to be fixed up and, in particular, have the valves redone back near where the horn was originally made during 1921 in the U.S. I did lots of before photos, but when it came back, I just got playing it and have not stopped. Well, that means that playing music and all my other projects have take priority. I am still planning to do the photos and then an exposé on the entire matter, so you can wait in deep anticipation for that.

I had mentioned that I was playing in a band to entertain seniors and that I had also started my own band, both giving me a long tiring, nevertheless exciting, blow on Mondays. The evening band, affectionately called the No Name Jazz Band, it still going along and we are improving. I am learning to lead and make-up the arrangement as I go. The Deep Cove Jazz Band was turned over to me, so now I have two bands. This band has been in need of rebuilding and I am happy to report that it looks like this is finally happening and we may, in a few weeks, be able to get back to doing gigs for seniors again.

I must say that it is certainly challenging to keep a band of volunteer musicians together. I am working on acquiring and maintaining a core group of members for each band and backups. It is also challenging to keep all the music in order. We had a long music sorting spree yesterday with the Deep Cove JB music. One other challenge that is working out well now is that I added a vocalist.

I was playing in a band and a woman came to sing. She only sang a few bars when she realized that she would not be available for the gig, so she left. However, I heard enough to form a hunch that she could be a jazz singer, so over the last few months she has been working at it and is a regular member or both bands. Yesterday she experienced what I experience on Mondays and nearly strained her voice.

I am playing a lot and getting better, although, I do find that I have limitations, which I may discuss another time.

Photography

I continue to do very little in this long time hobby area of my life. I still have intentions though. Since my photography seems to be on hold, so are my photoblogs, however, they too will get some attention one day.

Graphics

Turning to the area of graphics and publishing, I had an unfortunate experience. We were doing high-end flyers and then my friend decided to go another direction with his life and work. This left us, my wife and I, without this work. I had built up my workflow with the necessary software and suddenly there was no more work. I decided to take my little graphics business and hold it on the side until I am ready to publish my book. At the moment, I suppose, music and working on my book are the main priorities.

Baking

I have just come off of taking a break from baking. Our KitchenAid mixer stopped. My wife, somehow, managed to return it to Costco and then we began to wait for it to go on sale. Now it seems Costco is no longer carrying them. It may be that Costco is having KitchenAid develop a different model. In the meantime, we needed to use our Airmiles before they expire and my wife was looking on the Airmiles website for items to redeem our points on. Suddenly she said, “Is this what you are looking for?” Sure enough, it was the KitchenAid mixer and it was an even better model. It required points and money, but in the end, we came out $71 ahead. Next she found a fancy rice cooker with a natural clay removable pot. It makes yogurt and other things too. This she purchased entirely with points, so it was free. The item is back ordered, but the KitchenAid has arrived and is in use.

Family

We keep on muddling along. My wife Patricia is still working, as am I, both of us part-time. Michelle has another job at a gym and Malcolm is in the final legs of his Mechatronics engineering degree and is currently working at a co-op job. We are all fine and living, coming and going, under one roof.

The Future

As I realized when I was considering a name for my book, the future never arrives… at least not as expected and it always brings baggage. While my book states this about how technology influences our lives, it seems to be applicable in most areas of our lives.

I have somewhat promised that I would post some photos of my hair and post the story about my cornet and some photos. Before I do that, I think I would like to wash it. I have been playing for many months and it is long overdue for a cleaning.

As for further writing, there may be less here than other years, since I have the Technojungle blogfor all the technology related posts. On the other hand, I have plenty of music going on now and that may become a source for articles here.

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An update is even more overdue

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Time—that slippery conduit through which we pass—has eluded me once again; at least where this blog is concerned. I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll simply start to ramble, as usual, I suppose.

Fir

The first thing that is coming to mind is my hair. Yeah, I know, we sort of got over all that hair business way back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Well, my hair was never really that long in those days. Last summer, my hair was getting a little long, so my wife said, “If you want to have your hair a long, I’m going to take you to my hairdresser for your 60th birthday present.” I have the sort of hair that I can have shortish and longish which allows me to go a few months between haircuts. My wife likes my hair both ways.

So, off we went and had this very nice girl, Brandy, tidy-up my hair. I looked on the floor and said, “Not bad hair for 60.” Then came the reply that just simply caught me, “If you had a foot of it, you could donate it to cancer patients going through chemotherapy.”

What an idea! I could try my hair long and then do something good with it. Great! That was in mid-August and I am getting there slowly—very slowly, it seems. Perhaps it has slowed down a bit. It has been pretty unmanageable. Having long hair for a while is a neat idea, but getting there is not as easy as I thought it would be. Anyway, I am still working on it.

Writing (& book)

In case someone might actually be following my blog and might just be having some remote thoughts about my book, it is still underway. I have discovered, actually I’m sure I sort of knew, that the writing part is far easier and takes less time than editing. Most books are severely under-edited. I’m not ready to employ and professional editor to pour over my work through several versions, so I am recruiting people I know to be reader/editors.

I began by printing each of the three sections of the book and inserting them into three binders. Each reader/editor would get a coloured pen and an instruction/feedback sheet along with other information, such as target audience. The first person got section one. When they finished, I gave them section two and gave section one to the second reader/editor. It worked rather well and I got plenty of great edits and feedback. I have done this a couple of times as well as working through it with my writing coach.

I now have a couple of copies of the entire book out to do the same sort of process. This takes a long time. Busy people are doing this in their spare time and so am I. As the editing moves slowly along, it is difficult to maintain momentum and keep the energy up. It is interesting when I talk to people about my book. I only have to get started and everybody has something to say regarding their own experiences with technology. I remind them that my book is about being human and that we need to focus on that in the midst of the Technojungle that is devouring us.

Music

Here is an area of my life that has suddenly gained tremendous momentum and energy. Music was eluding me for years. I didn’t know what to do, or how to get started. Then an opportunity came up to play some Christmas carols just over a year ago now. Then I got invited to join a small band called The Deep Cove Old Time Jazz Band and play in retirement and care homes. I had done this over 25 years ago and had not played since. It was tough to get going again.

In June we played our last gig. So I asked the fellow learning to play banjo in the band if he would like to get together to play some tunes over the summer. I didn’t want to lose what I was beginning to gain. He said that he would. Then I wondered if the trombone player might like to join us. We had known each other some 35 years prior at the Hot Jazz Club. He said he would. He also said he knew of a couple of other fellows who might like to join in. Thus began an all summer long task of trying to get a group together. Everyone was going away at various times.

By mid to late August we were getting close to beginning to practice. I was amazed at how many tunes I know and can play. Soon another banjo player came who I also knew back in the Hot Jazz days. We practiced weekly until he went to play down under for a couple of months. We took Christmas off and are now having causal practices to get up to speed again.

I have some amazing news about my a cornet. I think it deserves a special entry, so look for a separate article about my cornet dream of a dream cornet.

Photography

Photography is an area that I have not done much with for a long time. I guess I am sort of waiting to see how my life goes. I do have a lot of photos I have just started to do something with and I do have two blogs about photography that I would like to work on. That is enough to keep me busy. I suppose I am concerned a bit about the age of my camera. It would be nice to get to the point where I could get or even need a new camera. I have one in mind, but it is expensive to keep up on technology.

Graphics

It has been a lot of years since I did any graphics work. Actually, I worked in training people around 15 years ago. I never considered myself a designer.

Last year, my friend Glenn, said he wanted to start a newsletter business. I didn’t know what to think, since printed flyers seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs. Nevertheless, I said I would help do a pilot. I found some open source software and struggled along with it.

Suddenly one day, the newsletter gained a companion flyer for a local shopping centre. We completed both on high quality paper and hand delivered them to the community. Since then, we have done three more and two or three are in the works. I have had to switch software a few times and gained some inexpensive yet powerful software. It is amazing what is out there now since Adobe started to rent their software and many users simply don’t want to follow that model. I have had some great compliments, done some photography (getting paid for the first time in over 45 years of holding a camera) and I have been amazed at how much I enjoy the work and even have fun. I have had to do some late nights though.

Baking

I continue to do my regular baking of pizza shells for Friday night pizza night, buns, bread, pasta and a few other things. Usually, I still grind ancient grains into flour in our Vitamix blender. For New Years Eve, we had another party and Glenn and I made the decadent Sin-O-Man (cinnamon) buns. They were amazing again.

Family

Well, my daughter, Michelle, came home from living a year in Australia and jumped right in to training to become a personal trainer. She is now working in this field everyday for long hours. Malcolm did a co-op job working on some helmet technology that can reduce the risk of concussions. It was very timely, since this sort of problems has been in the news a lot. He even made it to the news. He is now back in class studying Mechatronics Engineering. We are all living together in our home and having normal family dynamics.

Enough

That should be enough for now. I have continued to write a bit everyday, not always for an hour as I did to complete my book, but I have managed to amass a plethora of articles that I could put on this blog or my Technojungle blog. I just seem to be a bit short on time and I will be getting busier in the near future. Yet, many people do say that to get something done, one should give it to a busy person. We shall see. I have had doing this writing you are reading and a couple of other related tasks on my todo list for a couple of weeks, I think. We shall see. I still need to edit this and keyword it before I can upload it.

An update that is long overdue

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I was sitting in my car waiting for my wifey and got playing around with my iPhone camera.

I shall take a moment to explain why I have not been posting much on my blogs for quite some time. I use a program on my Mac called MacJournal to do writing every morning—actually four days a week. It is just free writing to keep the writing juices flowing. When I was trying to write my book and not finding the time to move it along, I found that an hour a day of just writing at the same time of day in the same place got the book done. I would sit down and write. Sometimes I would look at my book chapters and get into working on one. I found that I could comfortably write between 700 and 1300 words in one hour. If I did not finish it, I would do it the next day. It made for good short chapters in the book. I also gained a lot of writing that I want to eventually get on my blogs and in another book. I take portions of my free writing and repurpose them for articles that can be put on my blogs.

So what happened? One day realized that I needed to make sure all my blog material has tags. Tags are used to make searching for topics easier and for search engines to find articles. I had not been diligent in tagging everything. I began to go through all my WordPress entries on myBobLog to fill in all the tags. I am still working on that in my spare time. I have posts on myBobLog that I want to transfer to my Technojungle Project blog. I will get to that one day. What really caused a halt to my posting on the blogs is that, for some reason, the tags I was entering in MacJournal were no longer transferring to my WordPress blogs. I tried to copy and paste them manually to the Tags field in WordPress, but that did not work.

So began a long and arduous trek working with the folks at WordPress and particularly with Dan the developer of MacJournal. He has me on his beta testing program and we have been working on my issue for months. Then Jeremey at WordPress posted a screencast of how he was doing his tags. Dan also asked a couple of key questions. Last night, I tried something that I noticed in the screencast and something that Dan’s questions twigged in my mind. I actually tried clicking or tabbing or hitting return to exit the Tags field in MacJournal. I discovered that all three of those tiny steps will make the tags transfer successful. Now I am ready to go again and have plenty of material already written or ready to write about. The problem now is that, many other projects in my life are also on the move, so my time is limited. I’ll get to it all in good time. There is no rush. It is nice to know that a huge problem was solved with a tiny solution. Now isn’t that an amazing thought.

Sometimes our huge problems and issues in life can be resolved with a tiny solution that may well be right under our nose. It’s that tiny thing that has the huge impact. This is important to keep in mind when we start to fret, get anxious, or become frustrated over an obstacle in our life. It might just take a tiny action to resolve. So calm down and look around, you just might find a tiny action that might have a huge and significant impact on your issue or problem.

In the coming weeks and months, watch for new content on my blogs. I will also have more regular news about my upcoming book that is now going through rigorous editing processes; more photography (as I find time to get better organized); news about my new writing, photography, graphics and publishing business called inFocus; and I’ll share about my musical adventures. Whew, that is a lot going on. Right now, I must move on to editing my book today, that is, as soon as I enter tags for this initially short bit of writing.

Wow! Nothing since Easter? Re-test

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absent, articles, blog, book, Easter, editors, graphics, macjournal, months, periods, post, project, projects, publishing, reading, tags, transferred, wordpress, writing

Wow! Nothing since Easter? That is again a long blank space. If anyone out there is reading, you already know I have absent periods from time to time.

So just what have I been up to, you may be asking? My book, I shall answer. I finished my book and have been organizing people to be reader/editors. I have had some other projects on the go, including getting myself set up to do graphics and publishing again. That took plenty of time.

I am still testing to determine why when I write a blog post in MacJournal and add tags, the tags do not get transferred to my WordPress blogs. This project has also been on hold and I am going to figure it out so I can get on with adding many articles that I have been writing over the past months.

Happy Easter 2015

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BBQ, book, breakfast, buns, choir, church, cornet, Easter, edit, eggs, flour, fruit salad, good friday, hike, malcolm, patti, relaxing, rotisserie, sang, spelt, sunny, turkey

Here we go with Easter. On Good Friday, we went to church and I played my cornet again with the choir and Patti sang. Today we were up early and had friends over to share eggs, fruit salad and my Easter buns made with my home ground spelt flour. It was a great breakfast. It is a warm sunny day so Malcolm went for a hike and the rest of us headed off to church where, once again, I played my cornet and Patti sang. That was a great way to do Easter church.

We hung around for a while and now are home and have put a nice turkey on the BBQ rotisserie. I get to write stuff, edit my book and work away on things as I check the turkey.

This is turning out to be a relaxing day.

Yet another long break, but I’m back again

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It has been yet another long while since I added anything here. Now that I am back, I’ll tell you a bit about where I have been.

You may be aware from looking around here or on my other blogs, that I have been working on a book about ‘being human and living in a world of technology—the Technojungle’ called The Future Never Arrives… at least not as expected and it always brings baggage. I have been working on the book for over a year now.

It began as a pretty simple project. I had articles I had written here that seem as if they could be part of a book. So I embarked on the mission of writing a book taking material I had written and building on it. As I got into it, I found that it is a deep sea of technological change out there. It was not long until my book about the Technojungle was looking like a jungle itself.

I refocused a couple of months ago and decided that some material could be left for a second book, should the first one ever get finished, published and become somewhat successful. I also began a program I now call, ‘write a book in an hour a day.’ It is true. I never moved my book along more efficiently than after I just worked at it for an hour a day.

What does that mean? It is exactly what I am doing now to write this post. I sit down at my computer and type for no less and usually not much more than one hour. No, that does not include research or editing. It means writing. I found I could bang out, when slow, 750 words, and at the most, about 1,400 words. Usually, I can do 1,000 words in one hour.

I do this four times a week and can usually count on a minimum of about 3,500 words. That is around 10 pages. I can get 10 pages of rough text per week. When I discovered this little secret, I realized that a book could be written in less than half a year.

There is more to writing a book though. I have some other activities that I do. As I go about my days, I dictate notes into my iPhone. I also meet once a week with a coach and we discuss ideas, which I record. Then I sit down and transcribe all the recorded notes. This is actually the most time consuming activity. I would like to shorten this process, however, I realize that I have a lot of notes I can draw from in the future. Doing this also probably means that, when I do sit down to write, I not only have somethings to write about, but I am writing about some things I know about. I have thought things through and chewed on them for a while.

So, it does take more than an hour a day. But, it is easy to accumulate information. This is part of what my book is about. We have become very good at creating and accumulating information. This is not what make a book. A book is about taking the accumulation of information and telling a story that other people will find interesting. Hopefully, it will affect, even change their life in some way.

So, when I say that you can write a book in an hour a day, that is the actual writing. Writing is a craft using skills that need to be developed through exercise. The hour a day is the exercise and needs to continue every day. I have talked about the preparation of material through notetaking and discussions with others. Once you have a rough manuscript, the editing process begins. This is a long arduous process that involves other people.

So now the good news and the reason I am now able to write this piece. I have completed my first rough draft of 54,000 words. It is in the editing stage. I am entering some unknown territory now; not that I don’t know about editing, I am just not sure how this is going to pan out for my book. I am expecting that it will take a long time. I will need a thick skin, since it well involve the critiquing of my baby.

Once I have the book edited and ready to be published, I will be ready to enter more new territory; not that I don’t know about publishing, I don’t know what happens once it is laid out for printing. It is not that I don’t know about printing, I am not sure where and how my book will be printed. You see, I have worked in the printing industry and can do the prepress myself. I might even be able to produce an eBook. I can find a printer, I’m sure.

What is really unknown for me is the way the publishing world works today. The preparation work, printing, distribution and sales can be all tied together. I have decided to leave those concerns for when I have a finished, fully edited manuscript ready to go. I guess I am sort of thinking that by the time I get there, some doors will be available and I may have some choices for my next steps.

It’s falling out

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ancient grain, australia, banjo, bc, birds, book, bread, church, curling, engineering, fall, gibsons, guitar, kayaking, kelowna, melbourne, okanagan, palm desert, pasta, pizza, rerry, rickenbacker, roger mcguinn, spelt, technojungle, ubc, ubco, university of british columbia, vitamix

It is fall and the rain is falling, thus it is falling out.

As you can see, I did get a couple of things written here and even more, I started a new blog focused around my slow to materialize book about the Technojungle. Back before summer Roger McGuinn’s guitar caught my attention, so for months now I have had some Byrds tunes rattling around upstairs and, in particular, Roger’s half guitar and half banjo style playing of the Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar. Make sure you read the whole story. Also check out The Technojungle Project (see sidebar).

Most of our summer was pretty regular with son Malcolm taking summer engineering courses. I guess the biggest news is that daughter Michelle managed to move out of Kelowna after working for a year upon graduating from the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO). However, she did not stick around and after just over two weeks, we loaded her on a plane to move to Melbourne Australia for year.

We visited my sister and brother-in-law’s summer place in Gibsons, BC, a ferry ride away, where Patti discovered Kayaking. Now that they no longer reside at all nearby and spend winters in Palm Desert, we hardly ever see them. Patti’s mother passed away a year and a half ago and her brother and his family are all pretty busy with their own families. Nevertheless, we do seem to always be busy and going hither and tither including church and curling.

It has been very good weather, but now that the rain has set in, I am trying to get into some sort of routine for the winter. I continue to regularly make bread, pizza and pasta with fresh ground ancient grains, mostly spelt, ground into flour in our ViitaMix.

I have been a bit pokey about getting to a few tasks and projects, so hopefully I will get a bit more organized and accomplish these over the winter.

With it falling out, I am moving toward falling in—falling into a fall routine.

Back to blogging

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blog, book, coach, coaching, comment, discovery, e-mail, identity theft, journal, journey, photography, private, reflective, subscribe, surfing, transcribe, world, write, writing

As I wrote last month, I have been busy working on a book. It is a growing project that has been opening my eyes and teaching me much about what is happening in our world. The truth is that, in recent weeks, I have not actually written much in the book, but have been on this journey of discovery. I keep finding more to add into the book. It is not that I have not been writing, I do have a coach and write a reflective journal everyday about my day and about my journey along the path of writing the book. I also regularly record and subsequently transcribe notes as ideas come to mind or a run across something interesting.

Today, I realized that I need to get back to my blog more often. Duh! I’ve done little here for months. It occurred to me that, since I try to keep my writing here informal and easy (fun?), some of my book writing journey might be interesting to write about here. I also have other things to write about. This blog has provided some of the initial content for my book, so it makes sense to get back to it and see if it can generate more content.

As the days, weeks and months roll on, I shall grab snippets of my reflective writing, coaching session notes, thoughts I record and transcribe and E-mails to various people. I’ll describe some of the nuggets I discover on my journey and try out some ideas that I might add to the book. I think I am at around 36,000 words in very rough form and have a long way to go. I may even decide to post a few chapters.

I may also write about some completely different things and add to my photography work on my photography blogs. Perhaps, I may be able to increase the number of people who read my blogs. If you are interested in what I am doing, perhaps you could make a comment or two and subscribe. In the future there will be many tasks for us to work on together. For example, how to deal with too much E-mail, how to make your Internet surfing more private (Wait until you read why!) and then a big one, protecting yourself from identity theft. I have a recent experience to tell you about.

Blogging

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article, articles, blogging, book, career, comment, exercise, focus, ideas, interests, liking, linkedin, network, process, question, re-focus, read, response, sporadically, tweeting, writer, writer's network, writing

I just posted this on the Writer’s Network of LinkedIn as a comment in response to a question about blogging:

I started a blog just to write, often sporadically. I never cared if anybody read it. Over the years, I see how my ideas and interests have developed into what I want to focus on. Now, I am in the process of re-focusing my career and it includes writing. I now call myself a writer, among other things, and I want people to read my blog. I am even thinking of aiming toward a book.

My blog has turned out to be good exercise.

I then added a second comment:

I can’t seem to stop finding ideas to write about. My list of articles to write must be nearing thirty. I can’t find time to write everything I want since I am also out reading, commenting, Liking, tweeting, etc. It never ends.

 

What about wisdom

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There seems to have been a massive shift in an aspect of humans that provides the ability to steer and navigate through life. Throughout human history, we lived together and one would interact and learn from previous generations, through life experiences, the wisdom of life. This was not merely information, but a depth of knowledge and understanding that would produce a solid foundation on which younger generations could construct their living. Have we replaced wisdom with information?

Wisdom provides the ultimate guidance for living and, since it is not just information, we might consider it a much deeper aspect of human experience. Perhaps, even spiritual. Humans learn knowledge and skills through stages. First, is to learn about the subject by learning terminology or observing the performance of a skill. Next, one may use the basic knowledge or skill in simple forms. As they learn more about the subject, they begin to use the knowledge or skill in more complex ways. Eventually, they learn to apply the knowledge or skill on their own, adapting as required. At an even higher level of learning is mastery. Here one is able to somewhat bend or break the rules in ways that may be deemed artistic. They flow and are free from thinking and focusing on the techniques to being able to create and to make judgements. The knowledge and skills become who they are at a very deep level.

That would not seem to be the end of it. On the path to understanding, we employ various forms of what we sometimes call common sense. We seem to sort of pick up common sense as we travel through life. It stands on top of our inherent knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, what is good for us and what is bad.

As I look around at the world and society today, I see what I have just discussed has become so tattered and torn that I can scarcely find a thread of common sense, let alone any wisdom. What went wrong?

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet known so little about who we are. Look closely at this statement and you will see how it applies to what I have written above. Our society operates only at the basic levels of understanding. Today, information is used interchangeably with knowledge and seems to be considered to be synonymous with understanding. People still get educated, however, they may not end up making the field they are educated in, their life’s work. They may not be able to find a job or they may change jobs several times throughout their life.

For most of human history, who one was could often be established by one’s name. A name might even be changed to suite who a person became in life. One might be known as John the shoe maker. Names often had very deep meanings.

Without a flood of information at one’s fingertips, a person would have to learn from an elder, or wiser person—someone with more experience to pass along, often in the form of stories that would not only pass along wisdom, but would entertain. We sometimes call this mentoring or apprenticing. As books became available, valuable and important information could be published as a permanent record.

Enter mass communications. Suddenly, information is everywhere. More than we can absorb. There is no time to soak in the information to begin the journey to making it knowledge. The message travels through only a glimpse and the mind has no time to determine what it is being fed. The path to wisdom is broken. In addition, since it is so simple to publish or transmit information, anyone can do it and that information may not be accurate.

The question is, can a plethora of surface information at massive levels lead to the outcome of knowledge and even understanding? Can one, bombarded by daily doses of thousands of messages of information become wise with wisdom? Remember, wisdom allows one to make sound judgements. Look around and see if you can observe people making sound judgements.

It seems to me that the lack of wisdom is also tied into education and the need to systematize and mechanize human existence. The education system is designed to indoctrinate people into the current world view and to prepare them for a particular job or field of work. It is less about making human beings that can reason and more about maintaining the status quo. I ask, is it wise to maintain a path of growing consumption? Can we keep producing more and more? Does it make sense to judge the health of our society by the growth of its economy? This is a whole area of discussion that I have written about for years. Hopefully, you can get an idea of the sorts of questions one could be asking.

Our use of technology and its limiting of what full communications consists of, is stripping humankind of wisdom. When we communicate using any other means than face to face, we are missing about eighty percent of the message. I suspect that wisdom is best exchanged through face-to-face communications. As our machines become smarter and more like humans, humans become dumber and more like machines. We don’t seem to understand what is happening.

What exactly is wisdom? I’ll provide a little research. I did the following research after I had written the above.

Google, the reputed source of all knowledge today, yielded a definition of, ‘the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise.’

From Merrium-Webster:

: knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life
: the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand
: knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment

Full Definition of WISDOM
1
a :  accumulated philosophic or scientific learning :  knowledge

b :  ability to discern inner qualities and relationships :  insight

c :  good sense :  judgment

d :  generally accepted belief <challenges what has become accepted wisdom among many historians — Robert Darnton>
2
:  a wise attitude, belief, or course of action
3
:  the teachings of the ancient wise men

From Wikipedia:

Wisdom has, in the Western tradition, been listed as one of four cardinal virtues. As a virtue it is a habit or disposition to perform the action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. This implies a possession or seeking of knowledge of the given circumstances. This involves an understanding of people, things, events and situations, and the willingness and the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with an understanding of what is the right course of actions. It often requires control of one’s emotional reactions (the “passions“) so that universal principles, values, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one’s actions. In short, wisdom is a disposition to find the truth coupled with an optimum judgement as to right actions. Synonyms include: prudence, sagacity, discernment, or insight.

Google lists The Free Dictionary as the second hit after Wikipedia. So…

From The Free Dictionary:

1. The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.
2. Common sense; good judgment: “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things” (Henry David Thoreau).
3.
a. The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: “In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations” (Maya Angelou).
b. Wise teachings of the ancient sages.
4. A wise outlook, plan, or course of action.
5. Wisdom Bible Wisdom of Solomon.

Ah, the Bible. Finally, a source we can take a deeper look at. Notice the above notes Solomon as having wisdom. Solomon was the son of King David and wrote most of the book or Proverbs, the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asks for wisdom:

5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
7 And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
8 And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
Exodus 31:3
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
Psalm 37:30
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
Psalm 49:3
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
Psalm 136:5
To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 2:9-11
King James Version (KJV)
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
Proverbs 3:19
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Proverbs 17:24
Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 23:4
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
Proverbs 24:3
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:
Ecclesiastes 2:13
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Ecclesiastes 2:26
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Jeremiah 10:12, Jeremiah 51:15
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Romans 11:33
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
1 Corinthians 1:20
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:24
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1 Corinthians 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Ephesians 1:17
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Colossians 1:9
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Colossians 2:2-4
King James Version (KJV)
2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
Colossians 3:15-17
King James Version (KJV)
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 3:14-16
King James Version (KJV)
14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
James 3:17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Revelation 13:17-18
King James Version (KJV)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Through the above select passages, the Bible seems to add to what I have already written by stating wisdom comes from the spirit of God, that the righteous speak wisdom. Wisdom made the heavens and the Earth. Only a fool despises wisdom from which deep understanding and judgement comes. Man seems to have his own wisdom, the wisdom of this world, that seeks riches and other earthly things. This is called folly and is vanity and vexation of spirit. This earthly wisdom is sensual and devilish. We are told that, if we lack the wisdom of God, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy without partiality or hypocrisy, we should ask for it. With the wisdom of God we have the understanding of the beast of Revelations.

If Solomon was considered the wisest man to live, Jesus claimed to be greater. He is even called the wisdom of God.