I woke up thinking I've lived from tubes to transistors. Yeah, I guess I've seen some changes. Today I'm wondering if things will ever be the same. The answer, of course, is no. Things will never be the same again, they never are. As we grow older we like to look at the past and remember how things used to be. If we look long and hard enough it can make us sad. The knowledge that it's gone, it can't be recovered, and will never be again is somber indeed. It doesn't have to be though, we can control that with our thoughts. " There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond our power or our will. " ( Epictetus ) The past falls into that category. We can't change the past, the past has changed us.
My mother always says, the older you get the faster time goes by. I'm beginning to learn the truth of that. Years certainly have run together. Everything has been speeding up since I was young. I remember when we had tubes in our electronics. Turn on the radio or television and wait for them to warm up. Once they did, the speaker would begin to crackle a bit and then sound. You did have to wait just a bit, anticipation. Then we switched to transistors, instant on! No more waiting just flip the switch. Microwave ovens made it possible to heat something up, quickly. We were told we could cook a meal in minutes. Pocket calculators are amazingly fast. Computers came along, an information superhighway and the big concern, speed. How fast can they compute? We still talk about speed today, the advertisements proclaiming you can have GiG speed, 5G, speed. Wireless. lightening fast.
Yes lots of things have changed and we react to them. Whether they are good or bad is a matter of how we perceive those things. It is solely in our power. We can't control what others do or say, it is only our reaction to them that we can control. As we age we react faster, responding to forces at times without question, without thought. That's because we have already decided upon a course of action. To paraphrase an old Greek philosopher, it is impossible to learn what you feel you already know. It's something I call conviction. You should question everything, that's good advice, but I believe you do have to decide in the end. It is the strength of our convictions that defines the strength of our character. Conviction and belief are separate entities. Belief is what you think you will do, conviction is what you actually do. This is especially evident during adversity, emergencies or when challenged.
Time marches on is an old idiom. That it appears to move ever quickly forward can't be denied. I believe that is because it more difficult for man to look to tomorrow than to remember yesterday. And we know that with every yesterday, there is one less tomorrow. An unsettling thought but a universal truth. A truth only learned over time. We do need to remember, this too will pass. One day we either remember no more, or wake to eternity. We won't know which it is until we get there. I'm in no hurry to find out. In the meantime all I can do is move forward on the strength of my convictions. Yes, and pray. I've had many good days in the past but as my Grandmother would say, better days are coming.
My mother always says, the older you get the faster time goes by. I'm beginning to learn the truth of that. Years certainly have run together. Everything has been speeding up since I was young. I remember when we had tubes in our electronics. Turn on the radio or television and wait for them to warm up. Once they did, the speaker would begin to crackle a bit and then sound. You did have to wait just a bit, anticipation. Then we switched to transistors, instant on! No more waiting just flip the switch. Microwave ovens made it possible to heat something up, quickly. We were told we could cook a meal in minutes. Pocket calculators are amazingly fast. Computers came along, an information superhighway and the big concern, speed. How fast can they compute? We still talk about speed today, the advertisements proclaiming you can have GiG speed, 5G, speed. Wireless. lightening fast.
Yes lots of things have changed and we react to them. Whether they are good or bad is a matter of how we perceive those things. It is solely in our power. We can't control what others do or say, it is only our reaction to them that we can control. As we age we react faster, responding to forces at times without question, without thought. That's because we have already decided upon a course of action. To paraphrase an old Greek philosopher, it is impossible to learn what you feel you already know. It's something I call conviction. You should question everything, that's good advice, but I believe you do have to decide in the end. It is the strength of our convictions that defines the strength of our character. Conviction and belief are separate entities. Belief is what you think you will do, conviction is what you actually do. This is especially evident during adversity, emergencies or when challenged.
Time marches on is an old idiom. That it appears to move ever quickly forward can't be denied. I believe that is because it more difficult for man to look to tomorrow than to remember yesterday. And we know that with every yesterday, there is one less tomorrow. An unsettling thought but a universal truth. A truth only learned over time. We do need to remember, this too will pass. One day we either remember no more, or wake to eternity. We won't know which it is until we get there. I'm in no hurry to find out. In the meantime all I can do is move forward on the strength of my convictions. Yes, and pray. I've had many good days in the past but as my Grandmother would say, better days are coming.
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