It’s very interesting… I live in a world where online communication is quickly becoming the norm. In fact, I often feel like many of us are forgetting what’s its like to actually communicate as we were designed to communicate: through our voices, eyes, body language, etc.
Now we spend all of our time tweeting, or texting, or myspacing, or facebooking, or blogging, or emailing, or blah blah blah.
That’s what I feel like most of that is. It’s blah.
If you really want to speak with me, then why are you texting me? If you really want to know how I’m doing, asking me on my facebook wall doesn’t let me know you care. In fact, my opinion is that people who don’t want to see me or hear my voice really don’t like me.
When someone calls me and I don’t answer, there’s a good possibility it’s because I don’t want to speak with you. Now sometimes it’s because I can’t, or my phone is off, or dead, or I’m in a meeting. But if I really value our relationship, I will call you back.
If I call you and you text me, that lets me know you don’t care much about me or getting to know me.
In fact, this recently happened to me. I ran into a girl I was interested in a while back. We talked for awhile. I thought it went good. We texted back and forth that night. Two days later I called her to see if she wanted to do something but she didn’t answer her phone. She didn’t even respond.
When I texted her the next day, she texted me back.
When I called to invite her a few days later to a get together, she texted me back. That was it. I pretty much knew she wasn’t interested. And there wasn’t even the decency to let me know with her voice. A text was good enough for me. How demeaning…
But I guess with dating it’s a little different. If a friend refused to call me after I’d called them, I would assume they really weren’t a friend at all.
All of this is me trying to describe how much I despise online communication. To me, it really isn’t communication at all. It’s sharing and directing information. Interpersonal communication is when two people connect–and it must be through more than just cyberspace.
P.S. I do realize that I used blogging to share these thoughts… I’m not disputing the fact that the internet is a beautifully powerful way to share ideas.
I’ve recognized a trend among people… Some people think that humility means that you downplay, overlook, or ignore the greatness within you. After all, can I be humble if I admit that I’m an amazing singer, or artist, or businessman?
My thought is that to be truly humble, you must not only recognize the greatness within you, you must also embrace it. You must not be ashamed of it.
Sometimes I think our culture tries to make everyone the same. And sometimes the ones that stand out are the ones that get ridiculed the most. So we try not to stand out.
My hope for people is that they will look at themselves and see what it is about them that makes them great. So many of us look at ourselves and only see the negative aspects. We dwell on those things. We hate those things. Our self-esteem is low because of them.
If we could instead accept who we are and that we are not perfect, our lives will be so much better. Once we recognize that we have things to work on, we can begin the work. And by also paying attention to the positive things about us, we can begin to develop self-love for who we are.
Jesus Christ taught that the most important commandment was to love God first. After that, we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Many people overlook the fact that he commands us to love ourselves.
If we are truly humble, I believe that we will learn to recognize our greatness and our weakness, and to be okay with both. It is time that we stop being ashamed of who we are; that we accept who we are; and that we love who we are.
While I was driving through Nevada I put in my soundtrack from Schindler’s List. The main theme from that movie is one of the most moving pieces of music I have ever heard. And the violin solo was played by Itzhak Pearlman, one of the most brilliant violinists of our day.
I’m not sure if it was the music itself, or the fact that Pearlman is Jewish, or that the music is from a movie on the Holocaust, or the fact that I was driving through the barren Nevada desert (which looked absolutely beautiful)…
Whatever it was, or the combination of all of those things together, almost brought me to tears. I’ve never heard a violin cry the way it does in that song–with longing, beauty, desperation, elegance, and graceful dignity. I wish I could find better words to describe it. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a song with such raw emotion…
While driving across the desert the other day, I randomly spoke what I thought was a pretty interesting (and even profound) thought:
“Time is weird. It always feels like now.”
If you think about it, at every moment of our lives, it is now. All we can really experience is the present. We can remember the past and look to the future, but the present is all we can experience.
Can we measure time? A clock marks the passing of time, but it does not in itself measure time. A cup of flour can be measured. A glass of water can be measured. But we as humans do not possess a way to measure time. We can only take note of its passing.
When God says He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, is He really saying that He lives outside of time and can therefore measure it like we measure a glass of water?
This past Sunday I drove back from Utah. I was on vacation visiting friends and attending my friend Michele’s wedding.
As I left Shane’s apartment on Sunday, I stepped into the most beautiful and peaceful Utah morning I have ever experienced. It was clean and crisp, and the clouds hung low over the eastern mountains. It felt like the Earth had renewed itself through the previous night and was just beginning to wake. I stood there for a few minutes and just soaked in the feeling of renewal.
Luckily, I had the impression to take a picture. Understandably, the picture doesn’t capture the full beauty of the moment…
Last night I went and saw 17 Again starring Zac Efron… It was a great movie… Inspirational even
I loved the story and how it was told, even though it used an idea that has been used in other movies like Freaky Friday, Big, and 13 Going On 30. Knowing what was ultimately going to happen didn’t change the fact that the movie was well-written, well-acted, and very funny. Zac Efron showed that he could act in a more serious role, as he played the father of two teenagers and a husband of 18 years.
And having an amazing cast to support and fill out the rest of the movie made it overall a very entertaining movie. Particularly of note were the characters played by Thomas Lennon and Melora Hardin. Their romance was humorous and quarky to a pleasant extreme.
If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly suggest that you do. It will make you feel good.
I think what I liked the most was that the weather was perfect: clear blue sky, about 80 degrees. What inspired me was a combination of driving fast in my Dodge Charger (which I have still not named) with the windows down and skylight open, while listening to Absolute by The Fray, and driving through the west side of Roseville that is still undeveloped. Right by my house there are huge open fields that just go on and on… WOW it was amazing. Can’t get much more inspiring than that. I even took a picture of myself while I was driving…
Jon Inspired by The Fray, Nature, and Wind :)
I listened to Absolute at least 10 times today… And while I was driving home tonight–cranking Absolute with my windows down–I was so inspired that I pulled over and wrote some lyrics of my own… Then I cranked the music, and sped home. Wow, I love feeling inspired
And when I got home the inspiration didn’t stop. My roommate mentioned Smashing Pumpkins and that he had the music video for Disarm–easily one of my top 5 songs of all time. Needless to say I watched it a few times…
I just finished watching the movie Equilibrium starring Christian Bale, and it inspired me.
After getting home from the airport, I got onto my twitter account and wanted something to watch as I tweeted. I hadn’t seen Equilibrium in a while…
My favorite scene in the entire movie is when Christian Bale’s character wakes up and gets to feel what it’s like to see a sunrise for the first time… It is beautiful, and his acting and expressions in the scene are so real…
It reminds me that there are so many wondrous things in this world that I take for granted. I can feel that same wonder and amazement when I look around too… It’s a choice I get to make. :)
There is also a great quote that I like from the movie by William Butler Yeats:
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend it. Although, be ready for some great action and some violence as well.
So I was on a plane from Chicago back to Sacramento today… While I was flying home, they played a movie. I was reading a book so I didn’t really watch, but I did catch that the movie was Seven Pounds starring Will Smith. (I also didn’t have any headphones so I couldn’t listen even if I wanted to).
I hadn’t seen it before, but I had heard about it. Throughout the movie there were times when I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen–and remember, I couldn’t hear anything. It was so rivetting, and Will Smith’s acting seemed to be amazing (and so did everyone else’s).
By the end of the movie, I was watching it with all of my attention. I had to hold back tears… and a couple escaped. I still don’t know exactly what happened, but I do know it was beautiful and I will see it again with sound.
So I was on a plane from Chicago back to Sacramento today… While I was flying home, they played a movie. I was reading a book so I didn’t really watch, but I did catch that the movie was 