My part of the world here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is accustomed to snow and long winters. When spring arrived a few weeks ago and melted all the snow before April we were all feeling pretty optimistic. I saw my first robin and the tulips were about 2 inches into their spring celebration. When almost three feet of new snow fell upon us this week I found myself more than a little disheartened. Sunshine is now flooding through the windows and even seems to improve the appearance of the deep snow in the yard. I don't know if the tulips can survive over a week under a cold white blanket. But, life moves on and spring will soon be here with its passion for growth, life, color, sound, change, and shedding of old to make room for the new.
After recording a brief video a week ago I decided to dig out my unused webcam and purchase the "Vlog It!" software. I heard it made video blogging easier. The software is quite easy to learn and I like it quite a bit. I produced a practice video for an idea I have. Now I am wondering if getting a green screen is downright silly of me, or if it would be a good idea. Whether or not to invest in a video camera is now on my mind. I would like one that takes decent digital stills so I can replace my Canon PowerShot A95, which suffered a tiny scratch from a grain of sand during last year's Lake Michigan vacation. Repair would be over $100 and I could probably find a new one on Ebay for that price. It is a very good camera that cost me a fair amount of money a few years ago, not to mention the investment of time to learn many of its features. Every photo I take has a little blemish in the lower left quadrant, rendering the item about as valuable to me as the grainy pictures my cell phone produces.
I have a hard time discarding investments that no longer hold value. Chris Doelle of the Riding With the Window Down Podcast (and others) recently talked about the importance of assessing value now, not what it cost in the first place. I guess I should just put some time into selling stuff I no longer use. I have an old Zenith mini-VHS camcorder unused since the early 90's. A Severinson Getzen silver trumpet unused since 1980. Also taking up space is a Harmon Kardon Citation series amp and preamp from 1980 that needs some capacitor work, but is worth more than $500 to someone out there (based on Ebay listings). I have an iKey digital-to-portable hard drive 24 bit recorder I never used because it would not work with my old portable drive (the drive itself now dead, permanently silencing 15 gigs of purchased music in its hold). A Canon A-1 35mm film camera with motor-drive, flash, lenses, and a full darkroom setup (unused for a LONG time) is in my attic. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
As you may know my life in the past few months has been disrupted. My 82 year-old father's sudden health problems in February has me re-thinking values. Re-thinking everything, actually. While my involvement in new media last year has been a total blast, the investment in time was huge. I have no regrets about the hundreds of hours spent learning how to podcast and maintain a website, or the time spent producing shows because I met a lot of wonderful enthusiastic and creative people all around the world. The experience was gratifying. Now, however, I think it is time to review my investment and make some decisions. I am holding on to too many things no longer of value and I know I need to let go of those things in order to use both my hands to reach my potential. Just like gadgets that fail, computers that no longer keep up with the times, and things I no longer use, the things I do in life are too often based upon decisions I made long ago, and too seldom retain based on current value.
Why not change? For many of the same reasons I still have stuff in my attic that I could sell and never miss. What seems simple is not that easy. Commitment, time, energy, and a change of thinking are all requisite to the process. I commend the reader who succeeds at these things. I appreciate the reader who may share a similar struggle. There are advantages in resisting change. There must be. Or, perhaps it only seems so. It sure seems easier to keep things as they are. To dwell on the investments we once made and celebrate our good intentions of the past feels better than to ponder current value of those investments. The notion that one day I may find use for the Tandy 102 laptop for which I paid $500 in the mid 80's is plain silly. I refuse to throw it away because it works just fine. I push aside the reality of its value to me today, and so it ages in a box somewhere.
Anxiety is what we experience when we realize our power to reach our potential but hesitate to do so because it means letting go of stuff we think makes us secure. We can decide two things. To reach for our potential or pull our own power plug. Perhaps my interest in new media brought me to realize just how much power I have to reach my potential and just how little I have done about it. New media is an opportunity for all of us to get closer to our potentialities as human beings. Rather than rely on a few people or companies to select information and entertainment for us, we have another chance to flatten the hierarchical nature of our society through participatory media. Brilliant modern day media visionary Terry Heaton wrote a fascinating article about the power of society in the context of a powerful hierarchy. He reminds us of John Wycliffe's contribution to society in the 14th century gave people an opportunity to realize their power and potential as individuals when he translated the Bible to English. Common people learned to read and write. The hierarchy was threatened.
With power comes responsibility. Life is complicated and we rely on external power to make life easier -- be it the government, the church, big corporations, or major media. Not using our own power to reach our potential as individuals is easier than ever before. Ironically, using our power to reach our potentialities is also easier than ever. Each of us has unique potential and the power to decide whether to reach it. What we hold on to now may be precisely what we need to discard. We need both hands to grasp our full potential - perhaps the only thing of real value.
Brian's Blog
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