Tag Archives: Change

God Has A Tiger By The Tail

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It’s as if God has a tiger by the tail.

Do you feel like the world is spinning out of control? That the center cannot hold? Or that the universe is spinning so fast it will self-destruct by centrifugal force? Or some other, as yet unidentified, force? 

The scary thoughts I’m having at the end of one bad year and the start of an unknowable New Year were sparked by seeing the movie, “Star Wars.” However, this witches’ brew has been bubbling in my brain for some time.

Change comes fast and furious, and I wonder if we are near a convergence of forces that could bring on catastrophic change. I’m flashing on the Age of Aquarius, but this is not what hippies and free thinkers were hoping for in 1967-1969.

Think about it. All Black Swan scenarios are on the table.

War.

Global warming.

Technology off the leash.

Government. Or worse, the absence of government.

Economic collapse.

Social upheaval.

Mass migration(s).

Epidemics or pandemic.

Water scarcity.

Starvation.

Revolution.

Fascism.

Anarchy.

Chaos.

“Star Wars” is a brilliant, futuristic story of the battle between Good and Evil. The Light side and the Dark side.

(Aside: Does Star Wars glamorize war?  Don’t worry, this won’t be on the final exam.)

Back to the battle. Is it a battle between Good and Evil, or between God and Satan? I suppose it depends on whether you have a religious point of view, or a secular point of view.

Maybe it’s not a battle so much between Good and Evil, but rather, a battle between Truth and Lie. Or Truth and Illusion?

In 21st century political discourse, we have difficulty agreeing on facts. Maybe it’s a battle between Fact and Falsehood? Or Fact and Ignorance? Love and Fear?  These are some of my disorderly thoughts at the turn of the year, questions sparked by Star Wars. I should not wade too far into philosophy or theology, lest I be in over my head.

That’s enough uncensored thinking for the first day of the year.

What say you? A tiger by the tail? Spinning out of control?

— John Hayden

Jon Taplin On The Brave New Technology Revolution

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If you have 45 minutes and you’d like to know what’s happening in the worldwide technological revolution, I recommend “Sleeping Through A Revolution,” a lecture by Jon Taplin of the Annenberg Innovation Lab. Watch and listen to the lecture here.

The Internet economy is destroying jobs. Taplin cites the ruins of the music, newspaper, book, film, and television industries. The Internet economy has transferred a wealth of income  from the “creative class” (the makers of content) to monopolistic Internet platforms, such as Google and Facebook, Taplin says. And Amazon.

But wait! Musicians, editors, printers, authors and workers in the TV and film industries are not the only losers in this Brave New World of technology monopoly. Taplin predicts:

“The technological revolution is about to come for everybody else’s job too.”

Do you doubt it? The number of robots in the world is doubling every 30 months, Taplin reports. The lecture covers a lot of ground. Past, present, future. I’m not going to report the whole lecture. I urge you to watch it for yourself. I plan to listen to the lecture at least one more time.

— John Hayden

Blogging From My iPhone

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Notice how brief the previous post about the Fitbit was? I was out-of-town and experimenting with remote posting using the WordPress IOS application for my new iPhone. I’m not what you call an “early adaptor.”

It’s clear the IOS app doesn’t  give you nearly all the functionality of WordPress on a desktop. Continue reading →

Change And Construction Is A Constant In Montgomery

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A CONSTRUCTION CRANE TOWERS OVER A BUILDING IN PROGRESS IN THE HEART OF ROCKVILLE.

A CONSTRUCTION CRANE TOWERS OVER A BUILDING IN PROGRESS IN THE HEART OF ROCKVILLE.

Back in the day, the symbol of change was the bulldozer. When the suburbs were being created in the 1950s and 1960s, one was never far from the sight or sound of bulldozers grading the land for construction of single-family houses on quarter-acre lots.

Fast-forward to 2014, and the symbol of change is more often the construction crane. Single-family houses — mostly for the high-end market — are still constructed in Montgomery County, but that’s no longer the most common form of construction. More often, you see multifamily housing. The garden-apartment style of multifamily has been replaced by four-story buildings, and the trend is to go higher and denser.

We seem to have general agreement in Montgomery County in favor of tall development, rather than sprawl development. “Smart Growth” is the catchphrase.  The profiles of some communities — Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Rockville — have been redefined by high-rise construction. We’re not talking skyscrapers, but that time may come.

For a more in-depth look at change and economic development issues in Montgomery County, please see my post today in David Lublin’s TheSeventhState political blog under the title, “Contemplating Life Inside An Economic Engine.” 

— John Hayden  (BJohnHayden@icloud.com)

In 12 years of blogging, the more things change, the more they stay the same

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This essay by Om Malek is a comprehensive status report on social media and especially on blogging. A most valuable read for everyone who’s serious about blogging.

Hold these tho thoughts: “Point of view” and “Curating” — I’ll be pondering both items between now and Jan. 1. — John

Om Malik's avatarGigaom

Last Friday was the 12th anniversary of day when I posted my first blog post on gigaom.com, and starting what would later (in June 2006) become a company. (Up until Dec. 13, 2001, GigaOM was nothing more than a repository for my previously published articles and résumé.) These have been an interesting dozen years, where we have seen blogging go from a niche curiosity to a mainstream activity to becoming a catch-all phrase for news — casual news, if you are being nit picky. The concept of blogging as we knew it has lost some of its meaning and even a bit of meaningfulness.

When I started blogging, it was to share a point of view — mixing news with musings, with pictures, links, and later videos. It started and ended with that point of view, one that was open to adaption and adjustment, but always informed.

I told the…

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Retirement Ennui

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Folks who earn their living in a seasonal beach town get an adrenaline rush during the whirl of summer. Naturally, letdown and loss follow when the music stops. By Christmastime, the “Wait till next year” anticipation sets in. Anticipation is good to have during the dark night and the cold winter.

This October, the music really stopped. For the last time. Retirement. Fin de siecle.

The motel will reopen in May, but it will reopen without me.

The initial experience of retirement is bittersweet for most lifelong workers, I would venture. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s disorienting, unbalancing. But probably not as bad as quitting smoking cold turkey.

I’m making too many changes, more quickly than is advisable. I’ve been thinking about and planning the changes for a year, at least. And heaven knows, I’ve experienced plenty of other changes along the way.

Equilibrium will return eventually.

— John

Retirement Countdown

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stone jetty in surf

I’ve survived another season working in the hospitality trade in Ocean City, MD, and lived to see another Labor Day! Thank God! Wish I could say this was the best season yet in Ocean City, but that would not be true. Not planning to do it again next summer.

The beach motel will close for the winter in a few weeks, and after that, I will be Retired! Looking forward to whatever comes next. — John

high water warning

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A Brief History of the Boomer Generation

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(Note: This essay was written in 2009 as a WordPress “page.” It’s become buried and hard to find, so I thought it time to republish it properly as a “post,” complete with categories and tags.)

MY PARENTS were born in 1920, which seems now to be in a different historical era. They were children in the Roaring ’20s, teenagers through the Great Depression, young adults at the beginning of World War II.

They are the Greatest Generation. They put off everything to fight the war. Then the boys came home — the ones who survived — and started making up for lost time. They attended college in greater numbers than ever before, under the GI Bill, married and bought brand new ticky-tacky houses with VA loans. And they had children. Did they ever.

The Greatest Generation shared hardship, service, accomplishment, victory. Then they settled down and didn’t look back much. As they had devoted themselves to country in the 1940s, they devoted themselves to work and family in the 1950s and 1960s. They created my generation.

We’re the Baby Boomer generation. We are NOT the greatest, not even close, as Garrison Keeler wryly observed.

THINGS LOST-- AMERICA WENT FROM FAMILY DINNER TO FAST FOOD IN ONE GENERATION. --John Hayden photo

THINGS LOST– AMERICA WENT FROM FAMILY DINNER TO FAST FOOD IN ONE GENERATION. –John Hayden photo

We have shared history from the 1950s — polio shots and “duck and cover.”  The children of the 50s and 60s grew up in the shadow of the Cold War, with an awareness of unseen nuclear danger in the world, as well as a gradual awakening to inequality in America.

Though others see us as a monolithic cohort, the Boomer generation was divided in the 1960s and early 1970s by different, even opposite experiences. Many of us went to college, and many did not. We went to Vietnam, or we opposed the war (some did both).

The country cracked apart, during the 1960s, along social and economic lines. First the Civil Rights Movement, then the Vietnam War and the Peace Movement. The divide deepened and hardened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Make love not war. Don’t trust anyone over 30.   Continue reading →

Rethinking Retirement

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An incandescent light bulb.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nothing that went before prepares you for retirement.  That light bulb has just clicked on in my brain.

From your first day of school through all the years of work, you’re taught to prepare, to strive, to advance, to make money and accumulate stuff. Always pushing on, always goal-oriented. Always another mountain to be climbed.

Nothing prepares you for retirement. (Except maybe golf. Should I have taken golf lessons?)    Continue reading →

Midsummer Postcard From The Beach Motel

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Editor (Retired)'s avatar

Here we are, the middle of July, and I haven’t posted in nearly a month. It’s one of my longest lapses since I began blogging in 2007. (“Work In Progress” is of more recent vintage, started in 2009.) Why is the summer rushing by so quickly? I haven’t been on summer vacation; I’ve been working at the beach motel. And I’ve been distracted by all the uncertainties associated with being on the cusp of “retirement.” Thanks to all who are following along and wondering patiently what’s become of me. I will resume regular posting soon, friends. Whether I can shed any light on the state of my own life or anything else in the world remains to be seen.  — John

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