tonight i attended the rexburg tabernacle orchestra. after leaving this beautiful performance, i walked home with much on my mind. thoughts such as,
"if anyone offers me a ride home, i'll decline the offer saying it's healthy to walk,"
"...my hair looks better in the rain too."
"if i text my friends more when i don't have facebook, am i really moderating my technological uses?"
"i have a lot of homework to do."
"i'm coming to such great understandings of what it means to be alive & active in this gospel through my family foundations class."
"i need to write these thoughts in my journal."
"i want to be someone who people i look up to, look down at me & say: she's something else."
"something special."
"am i the only one who ever feels as though they are destined to be a person who does great things?"
"maybe not do great things, but be a great person."
"i feel different."
"i have the capacity to understand when something is truly great."
"i am capable of being someone intelligent, with great purpose."
"maybe this is why i try to take on tasks well beyond my ability."
"but how can i become that when i'm stuck doing small things like this?"
"i feel like raskolnikov."
"am i seeing similarities between myself & the superfluous men in these russian novels because they exist, or because i want them to?"
"maybe i'm not a superfluous man; i'm the noble woman, like tatyana."
"& maybe, i won't be the star in my life. that will be my husband."
"he will be different & because he is different, he will recognize why i am special."
"he will recognize why i am worth while."
"i'm different."
& then i arrived at my home. i sat down at my desk & turned on my computer. as i opened an email my dad sent me, i couldn't help but think,
"this is what i'm talking about."
"i can do these things."
"i just need to work."
then i opened the link he sent too. & while i watched it, i couldn't help but get a little teary-eyed.
"what this team has done is amazing."
"they are special people."
"they are capable of greatness & they have achieved greatness."
now here i am, left in awe. & wanting to show you what my dad showed me. because i don't understand computers/computer history the way my dad does, i'll share with you his words rather than rephrase it myself.
so here's the email from dad:
Kids,
You live in an amazing time. When I was born, IBM's computers were each as big as a truck, and though they could do little more than add numbers very fast, they changed the world in monumental ways back then. The internet didn't even exist, let alone facebook or texting.
For years, IBM has used the word "THINK" as their primary motto. The laptop I use at work is called a "Thinkpad". The word inspires and reminds their employees of their ultimate goal and purpose. This past year IBM (a company that started out making mechanical typewriters) finally produced a machine that can do just that, and it rivals the human brain. By the time you are my age, even more amazing machines may be constructed at the atomic level, being so small that you will need a microscope to see them. They may be injected inside your body to monitor or repair it. But they could also be designed to destroy it. (a real, and deadly, computer virus). Above all, it's important to remember where these machines came from. They weren't delivered by aliens. They weren't dreamed up in a few nights by a few geniuses. These great accomplishments were made by thousands of very simple people, many of whom are quite smart, but most of whom are not all that different from each of you.
You don't need to be nerds to be great, but you do need to work hard. You also need to be strong, embrace discipline, and defend right principles -- to ensure that your generation does not destroy or neglect the great things others have achieved before you. Learn anxiously -- as much as you can. Be a part of man's great journey to explore his potential. Follow a vision bigger than yourself, and find your own way to contribute to it. Your kids someday will benefit by what your generation has done. And hopefully, they will appreciate and build upon it.
See IBM make history:
You live in an amazing time. When I was born, IBM's computers were each as big as a truck, and though they could do little more than add numbers very fast, they changed the world in monumental ways back then. The internet didn't even exist, let alone facebook or texting.
For years, IBM has used the word "THINK" as their primary motto. The laptop I use at work is called a "Thinkpad". The word inspires and reminds their employees of their ultimate goal and purpose. This past year IBM (a company that started out making mechanical typewriters) finally produced a machine that can do just that, and it rivals the human brain. By the time you are my age, even more amazing machines may be constructed at the atomic level, being so small that you will need a microscope to see them. They may be injected inside your body to monitor or repair it. But they could also be designed to destroy it. (a real, and deadly, computer virus). Above all, it's important to remember where these machines came from. They weren't delivered by aliens. They weren't dreamed up in a few nights by a few geniuses. These great accomplishments were made by thousands of very simple people, many of whom are quite smart, but most of whom are not all that different from each of you.
You don't need to be nerds to be great, but you do need to work hard. You also need to be strong, embrace discipline, and defend right principles -- to ensure that your generation does not destroy or neglect the great things others have achieved before you. Learn anxiously -- as much as you can. Be a part of man's great journey to explore his potential. Follow a vision bigger than yourself, and find your own way to contribute to it. Your kids someday will benefit by what your generation has done. And hopefully, they will appreciate and build upon it.
See IBM make history:
here is the thing.
ReplyDeleteyou are already a marvel.
you are there.
for me the question is "have ye received His image in your countenance?"
what could be greater?
loved watching Watson outsmart, but after all is said and done, Watson could never feel. xox
cristie, thank you so much for your input. you're completely right, and what a beautiful thing it is to be human, created in the image of God.
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