Fantastic February

Dear Friends,

It's not me.

It's you.

You're all just so magnanimous

and clever

and entertaining

and so much more interesting

than my homework.

And, friends, I'm afraid I've been thinking.

A dangerous pastime,

I know.

But there's this thing called

Productivity.

And somehow I think our generation's getting a little confused as to what that really means.

Over the weekend, we had some good conversation--approximately seven hours worth (not all in one sitting)--with some good friends we've met here.

Conversations ranged and roved through politics, pop culture, faith, food and philosophy.

The culminating conversation of the weekend was spurred by a discussion of technology.  We talked about what it would feel like to be a Mark Zuckerberg or a Steve Jobs and to completely revolutionize the way people live.  We rhetorically spoke of how we live in the greatest of all eras with opportunity literally at our fingertips, accessed with little more effort than a thirst for knowledge and true success and a click of a button.

But how many of us really take it?

How many of us, in a generation where we have had want for little (at least in developed countries), reach the self-actualization that we should?  

It reminded me of a question that I heard quoted in church a few weeks ago:

"Is Friday evening a frenetic flight to see where the entertainment and action will be? Could our society today produce an Isaac Newton or a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Can 85 channels and uncountable DVDs ever fill our insatiable appetite to be entertained? Do any unwisely become addicted to computer games or Internet surfing, thereby missing the richer experiences of [life]?

The conclusion that we came to is:  Yes, our society is able to produce a Newton or a Mozart.  I mean, we produced a Zuckerberg and a Jobs, didn't we?

But then we asked:  Will we continue to do so?

We as the effervescent consumer have decided to willingly sign our similar opportunities over to the pantheon of technological gods.

We worship them.

We give our lives for them.

But in return, we essentially have nothing.

Internet browsing, Facebook friending and iPhone apps do not equal productivity.

However, with all the vast amounts of information we peruse on a daily basis, I think we have been lured into a secured sense of pseudo-productivity.

Truth is, neither you nor I will ever become anything more than bleary-eyed and bloated with facts from staring at our respective screens, unless we actually employ action to our opportunity.

Knowledge is the cognitive acquisition of facts.

But wisdom is the application thereof.

Friends are little thumbnails on our profiles.

But friendship is wrought of time, service and self.

Entertainment is engaging.

But to create, to inspire, to encourage is ennobling and life-changing.

So, with my good friend Chuck, I say it is the best of times and it is the worst of times.

For limitless, really, are our opportunities to become.

And to do good in the world.

But, never, in the history of humankind, have the distractions been so colorful, so cheap and so, well, distracting.

And I admit, recently I've been distracted.

But, I begin February with a new resolution:  to become.

And that starts with weeding out those things that would deter (or derail) me from that end.

So, as I began,

It's not you.

It's me.

I'm signing out of my days of non-productivity, and I'm sure I'll be happier for it.

And because of that, I think it's going to be a fantastic February.

Maybe yours would be, too...

____________________

Post Edit:

Some additional food for thought:

Click here and here.