The Unknown Road

The Unknown Road

Over the last few months, we have been traveling on the unknown road.  We did not pick it.  We would have not chosen it.  We do not want to go where it is taking us.  In life, you often do not have a choice of what happens.

Pushing yourself is to the unknown limit gives you a measuring stick on what you can handle in life.  You will never know how much you can lift, how far you can run, how much of the world falling apart you can take, until you try.  Growing up with grit means, whatever happens, you can make it.  Perhaps even thrive in it.

In the future, you will look back and judge yourself.  You are the only one qualified to do so.  We do not know what you have done, what you have gone through, only you do.  If you can be honest with yourself, will you like what you do with your life?

You can sit and watch streaming TV for weeks and months on end.  You could also work on a degree.  Learn a new trade.  Learn another language.  Learn something that will make your life better either professionally or financially.  Or just watch TV, it is your choice.

Today with technology, we have access to a boundless amount of information and knowledge.  Any subject is only a few keystrokes away from a lesson for us to view.  We only have a handful of seconds in our lives, use them wisely.

Computed

Getting To Know Oneself During The Quarantine

Getting To Know Oneself During The Quarantine

I'm in the shadows.

The weeks have flown past us over during the quarantine.  Is it Monday or Tuesday?  Is it night or day?  When was the last time I shaved or had a haircut?

So many questions, right now, we do not have many answers.  When can we get a haircut?  Nobody knows.  There is a freedom to let it all go. 

When you do not know something, and there is no way to figure it out, you can either worry about it or let it go.  In life, there are many times when you have no control over your future, right now is one of those times.  People want to work.  People do not want to get ill.  What is the correct answer?  

Perhaps in the future, we will know more to measure it.  Maybe even to answer it.

At some point, things will go back to normal.  Will they?  Or is the future full of face masks, hand washing, social separation, and no large crowds?  Every time we go into a store will they measure our temperature?  Will, we only listen to a concert online, see art shows, and plays from a distance.  What about sports?  What jobs will remain?  Can robots help us?

There are so many questions to ask.  You can use this time to work on anything you or want or do nothing at all.  That is one thing you have control over.  That novel, piece of art, album is not going to make itself.  That room that you need to clean, yup, you have to do it yourself.   The grass outside is not stopping growing.  Your car can use a tune-up too.

The future is the undiscovered country, only this time it is undiscovered something.  We do not know what it will look like.  Is the future even bright any more?  I think it will be.

All I can say about it is that we as humans will face it and deal with it.  There is no choice.  Humanity will go on.  What we make of it, is on us.  

Humans have been on this planet for a while and before written history, have faced plagues,  disease, and many other challenges.  

I look forward to the future.  Together, we can make that future bright!  Smile, it will work itself out.  I feel it in the air.

Computed.

Life After The Coronavirus

Life After The Coronavirus

After any major event in history, things are different.   The Great War, you know it as World War I, life was different after it.  After World War II, life was different.  After 9/11, the world was different.  So will life after the Coronavirus is over.

As time marches on, we will remember less and less of it.  For some, the memories will be thoughts like 'it was a drag to stay at home'.  Others may have different jobs because their old ones are gone forever.  Memories of moving to a different house or apartment will linger on in some minds.  Some may have gotten ill during the crisis.  Sadly, some will know people that will succumb to the virus.  Others may not remember anything about it. At some point, life moves on.

Will staying six feet from one another, not shaking hands, avoiding large crowds, and staying at home become the new normal?  Will there be more people that will telecommute to work?  Will our students stay at home more and learn using the wonders of the internet?  Will stores limit the number of costumers that enter and have reduced hours so they can sanitize the store? Three weeks ago most of this rarely occurred, now we are used to it.

New terms and words have entered our vocabulary.  Social distancing, stay at home, shelter in place, COVID-19, and novel coronavirus are all words we never used a few weeks ago.  Now we know them by heart.

Three weeks ago I went to two concerts.  Three weeks ago I didn't think I would be teaching remotely for the rest of the semester.  Three weeks ago I didn't think that I wouldn't be able to eat in a restaurant or go see a play for the foreseeable future.  Three weeks ago I wouldn't have thought that airlines would be empty.  Three weeks ago, I didn't see any of this happening.  Not like this. 

Life has changed so fast in less than a month.  Many don't know when they will be able to go back to work. Weddings, sports events, rock concerts are all on hold for now.  New movie releases are being pushed back and back.  Conventions are all on hold.  New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles have their streets empty of tourists.

I wish I could say everything will go back to normal.  No one can say this.  We as humans will adapt to whatever happens in the future.   Humanity will go on and on.

We all will be happy when things go back to normal.   Will they?  Or will the scars from the Coronavirus crisis remand with us for the rest of our lives?

Computed



Some Videos To Watch:
Stay-at-home, Shelter in place, Isolation, Quarantine: What Do These Terms Mean?
How To Look At Your Cabin Fever
This Is The Time For You To Be Creative!

Leap Year Day, The Day Forgotten

Leap Year Day, The Day Forgotten

Leap year day, it comes once every four years.  Right on time, every four years this magical day just appears and gives the shortest month of the year an extra day.  We joke about how if you were born on this day, you are four times younger than a regular day.  Your birthday would only come every four years!  Time stands still for three years for you!

Of course, this is not reality, you are just like the rest of us, it is just that day is skipped, so you have your birthday on the 28th or 1st.  It would be cool if you could only live for one year out of four years.  You would witness four times as much history skipping the years in between leap year days.

If you lived to be a hundred years old you would see four hundred years of history.  How cool is that?

If you were born in 1776, you would be a little over half of your life by now.  You saw the birth of The United States of America.  You got to see all of the presidents elected.  The rise of technology, medicine, electricity, computers, the internet, etc.  And you still have over half of your life to go!

In the next two hundred years, it will be amazing to see what breakthroughs are developed and invented.  How will this country and the world look another two hundred years from now?  If you think how different the world is from 1776 to today, it is amazing.  From looking at the moon to seeing humans land on it.  Watching a bird fly to you flying over oceans to fall away lands.  Having news travel by the speed of horses to the speed of light.  Wow!

Living my life, I have always looked forward to the future.  I feel it will be a better place.  In my own lifetime, I have witnessed so much good come from technology that is is hard to think about what will come next.  Whatever happens, humanity is ready for it.  All I know is that I can't wait to see it!  

Computed.