Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: People With Minds
Author: Stephen B. Waters Posted: 12/29/1998; 7:19:11 AM Topic: DaveNet comments Msg #: 1756 (In response to 1706) Prev/Next: 1755 / 1758
I should have given examples of Simple Wisdom. Here are two:First, Recursion -- common in programming, it is a tool most people aren't taught to use. To be able to think about thinking about thinking about thinking. To step back to see how recursive thinking is a double edge sword.
Secondly, Time and your place in it. Here is an editorial we're running tonight in our daily newspaper:
Headline: Have a Dickens of a New Year’s Celebration
Body: For some, New Year’s Eve is an opportunity to celebrate the passage of time. Another year under the belt. Leave it to Charles Dickens, in "A Christmas Carol", to remind us to celebrate something more significant. Dickens penned a story that was as much a lesson for New Year’s as it was for Christmas.
In the last chapter, Ebeneezer Scrooge awakes a changed man from his ghostly guided tour. "I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" He resolves, exclaiming, "The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me."
Far too frequently, a New Year marks simply the passage of time rather than celebrating our place within it. If you sight down a strip of motion picture film you can see from the past, through the present, to the future frames. A New Year is an occasion to look from the past, through the present, into the future. The New Year’s celebration reminds us to pause and to reflect—and, in so doing, to gain perspective, direction, balance and strength.
In the concluding moments of the story, Dickens reminds us of a second important and useful lesson. As time passes since his resolution, Scrooge is described as being "better than his word." However, "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset."
Use this New Year celebration to see more clearly both the world and your temporary place in it. And once you see your path for making a better future, stay your course even though others may laugh. Have a wonderful New Year!
regards/sbw
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