Life « Of mind, heart, and Tron

Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

In memory of Steve Jobs

Posted by Adam Fischer on October 6th, 2011 | No Comments »

Whenever someone famous dies we throw the word “loss” around a lot. And indeed, any time any life is snuffed out (especially too soon) it is a great loss. But every once in a while there is no other word that can adequately describe the feeling of a premature death than “loss”. The passing of Steve Jobs is such an occasion.

In a celebrity and sports obsessed culture we often reserve the word greatness for actors and athletes. But when their greatness is on display, whether on the silver screen or in an arena, it doesn’t impact humanity much more than propelling the actor or the athlete to great fame. They entertain us for a while and then we get back to “real” life. In the case of Steve Jobs, his greatness changed our world. Permanently.

There is a multitude of accomplishments to Steve Jobs credit that, if he were to only have accomplished one of them, we would be lauding him as a visionary. That one man could have achieved all of them, in a life that was too short, the word for that is revolutionary.

We have a way of letting nostalgia get the best of us after someone passes; of sometimes inflating their contributions and successes. In Jobs case you must wonder if we will not be guilty of the opposite. He was that prolific. He was that influential.

The passing of Jobs should be a wake-up call for all of us to realize what extraordinary times we live in. We are in the midst of a revolution that just isn’t for gadget enthusiasts and “techies”, but rather a revolution that literally is changing the face of the earth. The way we work, the way we play, the way we interact with one another – every relevant activity that man takes part in has been completely revolutionized in the last 40 years. And one man has had his hand in almost every aspect of that. And he is gone now. At the age of 56.

Early on in the life of Apple they used the marketing slogan “Think Different.” Today the world does think differently because of Steve Jobs. And the world is now dimmer because his light has been snuffed out. How profoundly sad. God bless you and keep you Mr. Jobs. You will be sorely, sorely missed.

Filed under Apple, Life, Technology

Culture of Death

Posted by Adam Fischer on May 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

I’ve been reading The Difference God Makes by Francis Cardinal George. It’s a fantastic read. If you don’t have it pick it up, pronto. In it he references John Paul II’s Evangelium vitae extensively in the first two chapters (as that’s all I’ve been through). JPII talks about the “Culture of Death” that permeates much of society, including the US.

While I’ve heard of this reference before, Cardinal George really does a great job of drawing it out and it ended up helping me put words to observations I’ve had myself. Specifically, how much of what we see on television is about violence, murder, and death. So I did a little research and went through the primetime lineups of the Big 3 broadcast networks (ABC,CBS,NBC).

All told they program 45 hours of primetime Monday through Friday. I ended up looking at all of their primetime programming and looked at programs where murder was at the heart of the plotline for the show. For this research I actually looked at the plot synopsis for the show as listed in the directv.com channel guide. These results also include 20/20 and Dateline, as those two shows were planning on shows about murder.

All told 31% of all primetime broadcasts (14 hours) deal with murder. If you make death a broad term and add in medical dramas which often deal with patients dying, that number goes to 35% (16 hours).

If you single out the 9pm CST hour, where 15 hours of “dramatic” programming is found that number jumps to 40% (6 hours) For 9pm the percentage is 53% when factoring in medical dramas (8 hours).

Don’t forget these numbers don’t include shows that deal with other extremely violent situations such as rape (there were two other hours of Law and Order and an episode of Medium that dealt with rape). When you start to add those shows in over half of what you see on the big 3 in primetime deals with extreme criminal violence and murder. Those numbers are incredibly eye opening.

Filed under Faith, Life, TV

It’s the end of the world..

Posted by Adam Fischer on September 9th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

They’re firing up the Large Hardon Collider tomorrow, which some have theorized could mean the end of the world. Well, it’s been nice knowing you…

Filed under Life

Before the world began

Posted by Adam Fischer on August 18th, 2008 | No Comments »

(Editorial note: As you may have noticed, I’ve been gone for a while. I’ll write more as to why that’s been the case, for now though enjoy)

I was thinking a lot last night about various different topics. I had gone to the 6 pm mass which has both pros and cons. The con is you’re not able to start your day with mass – which I love. Conversely the pro is that the things of God, worship and Salvation tend to be on your mind as you go to bed.

With last Friday being the Feast of the Assumption I’ve been thinking a lot about life, creation , Salvation and the Christ. I then began to mull the nature and properties of love and sin – paying special attention to the power of choice in such matters. This weekend was also my nephew Ethan’s fourth birthday party. This was the first birthday or holiday that I actually bought him presents (all previous gifts were savings bonds – lame I know) Last night though, as I drifted off to sleep though I thought specifically about the time before creation – that time before the world began. (I suppose it’s important to note that both my finite human mind and unavoidable ignorance has to call such a thing as “time”)

I started to wonder though about the Father sitting and mulling how He’d bring this universe into existence. How He’d specificially communicate Hid very nature of Love to His creation. As I thought more about it I came acrosss this moment – this inexplicable moment. “What was the feeling that the Father had when He first imagined the Christ?” (It mightt also be important to note that some may even call such a thought blasphemy for many reasons)
I’d like to think that He struggled mightily finding a solution to the problem of Freedom – knowing that the inevitable outcome of Freedom was the Fall. I can see ages upon ages spent with the Father pensively thinking about this until that one special moment – I shall give them my Son. How did he react? Did His desire to eagerly give this gift to the world (I tasted a a 1-1trillionth of this feeling at Ethan’s party) mean he began Creation immediately? Did He sit back and let a few more ages go by, reveling in the Goodness that was to come? Either way – this thought really filled me with great joy and peace…. hopefully it brings a little something to you too.

Filed under Faith, Life

Making your own difficult decisions

Posted by Adam Fischer on May 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I’ve been thinking a lot about difficult decisions lately. It’s hard not to with all that has been going on in my life. Sometimes I’ve made the right ones, sometimes the wrong ones, and sometimes ones that are right, even if I don’t get the result that I desperately want. However this post will be a little more focused. What I’m learning about the whole ordeal with my grandmother is about the overwhelming importance for everyone to have a living will. When my grandmother’s situation became grave on Friday evening there were some difficult questions asked “Does she have a DNR?” being at the top of the list. The fact is, without a will those decisions are left to your loved ones. You’re asking them to make an educated guess about what you want for yourself, for your life, and for your care. There are two reasons why I will be drawing up a will very very shortly 1) I don’t like having others making decisions for me 2) I don’t want to put that burden on the ones I love.

When it comes to 1) I’m a pretty independent, strongly opinionated, and strong willed guy. I know what I want, and I know how I want it (most of the time). If I ever become incapacitated I want my opinion to be heard and want to be making most of the important decisions when it comes to the rest of my life. A will accomplishes that.

2) Just using my grandma’s situation as an example – I see what an overwhelming toll that these decisions have made on my family. “Is this how she’d want it?” “Did I recall that converastion correctly?” “Am I making the right decision?” These are all common questions that decisions makers are faced with. The pressure involved with those decisions is overwhelming, and I don’t want to put the people I love the most in that position if I can help it.

There’s also the issue of bias when it comes to those decisions. Currently my grandmother is on a roller coaster, and of course we all want her to get better. So when she hits a certain “peak” and we all get encouraged our outlook and decisions start to get biased. I’ll give you an example: Recently my grandmother has become a lot more lucid and has started to speak in full sentences and has exhibited good amounts of memory recall. Everyone has been greatly encouraged. The nurse has discussed moving her out of the Intensive Care Unit, and everyone was really gung ho about it. You see, getting her out of the ICU means she’s getting better – which is what we all want. But does “what we want” mean that such a move would be the best care for her? This was a question I raised (needless to say it wasn’t too popular). A few hours later my grandmother couldn’t recall what year it was, and the scans came back which led the neurologist to say she most certainly needs to stay in the ICU one more night. So you see my point: the natural desire for full recovery of a loved one may bias their decision making process.

Overall, I know that of course a living will cannot cover everything that your loved ones can encounter. But it can certainly define some of the more (maybe even most) important decisions, and also give you a way to convey the nature of how you want your care to be managed. God forbid it ever be used, but should it be, I know I’ll be calling the shots now, so that others won’t have to later.