Rain at last

 I'm not sure where this will fit into the larger themes of the blog.  I admit I'm not sure what the larger themes of the blog are yet.  But as someone that has tried to squeeze all the uncertainty possible out of my life over the past few years, I'm taking the opportunity to embrace the uncertain.  I'm trying to focus on the process rather than the outcome in the hopes that all the wise people are right and the outcome will take care of itself.  We will see.

The pandemic has been a particularly tough time for me and I imagine for people that think like me.  I generally don't do well with uncertainty (squeeze, remember?) and these past 20 months have been nothing if not uncertain.  Will i get sick?  If i do, will I survive?  Can I protect my family, can I protect myself?  It's truly been a time for wild abandonment.  

So on some level, I think I understand people the protest mask mandates and vaccine requirements.  The uncertainty is crushing or it can be and everyone reacts to that pressure differently.  For some people, like myself, I cling to what I can control.  I can wear a mask, I can get a shot.  And those actions make the uncertainty more bearable.  But other people look at it from the other side; the masks are not 100% effective, the vaccines are not 100% effective so neither represents relief from the gnawing doubt.  The only relief from doubt that is available is a firm stance that none of it matters so why do it.  At least in that position, you have a little certainty.  you know that you will not do these things.  you know that whatever your risk for contracting the disease is, it has remained the same.  And while you wait for your unlucky lottery number to pop, you get to enjoy your life as you used to.  

There is comfort in that and until I wrote this, I hadn't fully appreciated it.  Don't misunderstand, I'm still not happy about it.  I want to get back to normal as much as the next person and, from where I'm sitting, the biggest reason we haven't is the inability to face cold reality by so many of my country-people.  This pandemic could be fading in our collective memories, it could be turning into nothing worse than seasonal flu as so many have wrongly claimed.  But it's not and it's not because we have too many people unwilling to put their big boy and big girl pants on and do what's best for everyone else and not just what makes them happy in the moment.  

Here we go

This is it, the beginning.  Everything starts somewhere, we're at the start of whatever this will end up being.  I've liked the idea of blogging for a while, who doesn't want to have a forum to talk about whatever they feel like, but that self doubt about the audience always comes in.  Who really wants to hear what I have to say, there's nothing that special about my point of view.  If anything, it's pretty generic, pretty privileged.  After all, I'm creating this as part of a doctoral class assignment.    

That said, I believe there is value in putting meaningful content into the world.  I believe in the value of shared ideas and inspiration because I have garnered so much personal value from the ideas of others.  So maybe it's self serving and self centered to think I can add back into the pool that has fed me but it's worth a shot.  Maybe there's an idea or thought bouncing around inside this melon that can help someone.  

This blog begins in CS 875, Futuring and Innovation, which is as good a place as any.  The class demands a wide thought aperture.  Correlating different ideas, pulling together different trends, looking at the world through a more inclusive lense.  It's easy to think that maybe everyone could do this, could guess at the future and see if they're right but I don't think that's entirely accurate.  In order to make reasonable predictions or present ideas that have merit, there has to be a foundation of deep understanding that only comes with years of education, study and experience.  Like a house, what we see are the shiney fixtures, the neat ideas, but what makes that possible is the foundation, the dirty concrete that took a lot of work to get just right.  While it may seem like 20 years of work experience in two degrees isn't a prerequisite for this kind of thing, and who knows, maybe it really isn't, I think that's the concrete foundation that worthwhile ideas sit on.  

This blog will be a Joycean stream of consciousness.  In some cases, we'll look at technology and applications of technology. In others, we might delve into what it means to be a good citizen or how morality develops.  What this blog is really about then is what it means to be a human being.  As humans, we strive, we look forward, we dream.  That's the innovation piece that this class is asking me to do.  But being human is also knowing where we are and what gives us joy and value in the present.  That should be a part of the discussion as well.  So I will do my best to offer both sides.