Cross Country...

Certainly nothing is as pure or perfect. Its vigor, clarity, and the joyfulness of spirit in the thrill of competition, the race is the sport of the gods; run from the first by the ancient Olympians, it is the sport of contest among the champions of old and new. The contest has a natural allure that none can turn away; however amateur, the race is sure to draw forth a crowd of enthusiastic spectators. But not every race is the simple road race or playground challenge. Only one race, with its obstacles of the mind and body, brings the toughest of champions to the ground, batters and uplifts the spirit all competing in it, yet delivers a triumphant, ethereal joy at defeating an opponent while one’s body has surpassed the realms of consciousness and exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment to those who simply compete and complete in a race of the type. Childish joy, raucous laughter, terrible singing, run-dancing, nervous playfulness, and general spontaneity are all traits brought forth in even the most hardened of competitors both before and after the race. The energy of the grounds is contagious to all yet often the most elite athletes often succumb the ground and its welcoming security compared to the exhausted instability of their bodies by the end of the challenge; however, champions of the sport feel this contagion when they’re driving their bodies far past the realm of sanity and feel the adrenaline rush and surge of energy from the cheers of the crowd. A race’s spell of competition and excitement draws the most un-athletic, altruistic patrons of a cause, reckless of children, and the most hardened, chiseled of elite athletes. Throughout the centuries, there has been a passion, an allurement of the amateur sport, from the mud and hills and ruts in the course, to the exhausting challenge of completing the endeavor and striving for victory, to the intrinsic closeness of bitter rivals that if it were overrun with heavy sponsorships, overly hyped up competition, and run on easy courses it would cease to be itself; it would no longer be the beautiful sport of cross country. 

so connected we're disconnected...

This is an essay i wrote for English class regarding todays' societal obsession with the wireless world. I admit, I've got an iPhone and love it but I really have noticed that it is taking a toll on my relationships with my friends and family.                            

                         iPhones: Taking Over the World, One Generation at a Time

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,” said Dickens in his famous first lines of A Tale of Two Cities. Our modern world has likewise become a “best of times” and a “worst of times,” and a major contributing factor is the Apple iPhone. These smartphones offer user connectivity to friends elsewhere through messaging, access to internet sites through Wi-Fi or 3G, and relief from boredom through gaming apps. However, many would agree that such widespread use of these devices has begun to affect modern society and social skills. American youths’ widespread use of iPhones has adversely effected negative interpersonal interactions at many societal and behavioral levels.

Slowly but surely, iPhone use destroys the fullness of social interaction. What used to be opportunities to catch up with friends in person, to share common, if mundane, experiences between friends at social gatherings have now become nice background noise and atmospheres in which to engage in the activity happening on the wireless network in other, absent, friends’ lives. Face to face interaction when not done through the Facetime video messaging of the iPhones becomes almost a forced task. For many it becomes an interrogation sparking no conversation broken by awkward pauses and routine checks of any signs of messaging or notification from social media sites. This inability to converse stems, in part, from ever-popular texting. One simply types a message to a friend, awaits a response, and then, upon receiving one, can carefully concoct a witty, adequate reply to the friends’ message in whatever time allowance needed for a spark of brilliance to hit the author. This delayed response while in wireless conversation destructs human creativity and quickness of wit in physical conversation is most likely the culprit of awkward face to face conversations.

Teenagers today can barely perform any task or make any public appearance without the accompaniment of their respective iPhones. In my experience, on an afternoon at a restaurant for lunch with close friends, small talk and gossip was exchanged while waiting for the waiter, punctuated by natural pauses for breath and lulls in conversation in which everyone in the group paused to check the electronic source of vibration on the table. A friend checked her phone and all the others likewise did the same, attempting to avoid sitting there looking as though one had no friends or interests outside the immediate present. Situations such as this recur often and something drastically wrong remains with this image. What is this mindset that the present isn’t good enough? Not just the present, but the present group of people. If one’s friends do not feel as though the conversation sparks enough interest to hold their attention they simply lose themselves in wireless interaction. How disrespectful! What an insult to that individual’s intelligence and persona that his or her friends do not give the time of day to listen to what he or she has to say. These people cannot truly remain considered as friends, yet this happens daily in every environment. Because of repeat instances in which individuals let the wireless world engulf them while in the presence of friends, the steady availability of outside conversation and media disrupts and destroys conversation.

IPhone use has also begun adversely effecting family relationships and interactions. BBC news filmed a British family whose mother openly admits to their collective addiction to smartphones. Clips of the family at the dinner table show them eating dinner in silence, each captivated by his or her respective iPhone or similar smart phone. Later clips show even the baby of the family absorbed in her own world of TV shows via the various movie or television show apps. This family, and others like it, has lost the concept of what it means to interact as a family. Individuals have no disconnecting or unplugging from their devices and cannot forget about or avoid the world outside. The home was formerly a time to unwind, relax, do a little work if necessary, but to mostly enjoy spending time with the people whom one should be closest. IPhones offer a constant ability to remain attached and connected to anything and everything happening in the outside world and destroy the concept of family time and down time. They have brought silence to the quintessential family dinners. IPhones and the constant connectivity to the outside world that accompanies them take away from family relationships and destroy the family dynamic.

IPhones also cause distraction from menial tasks, jobs, and homework. The many dangers of texting while driving are prominently displayed in the media, but an even larger source of distraction is the constant notifications and vibrations on the iPhone screens. They also provide music to listen to while driving yet easily distract the driver when he or she attempts to change a song and inevitably receives a text and a Twitter update and soon finds him or herself swerving to avoid the shoulder. Completing homework and household chores well and in a timely fashion likewise becomes an issue at the hands of an iPhone’s distractions.  A 2010 Stanford University survey showed that a majority of young adults on the Stanford campus were in some way addicted to their iPhones, and many young adults elsewhere are likewise also addicted. Willpower can only stand for so long in the face of iPhones; even the most valiant attempts to avoid checking phones for updates or viewing texts that one heard buzz on the charger fall to the addicting thrill of constant connection. Even while writing this essay the distractions of the iPhone proved too powerful to resist. Something drastic may happen when one does not check his or her phone. The idea that one’s friend may have a pressing question about homework or one may miss some interesting drama or a call from a friend out of town further fuels the addiction. This dangerous digression could lead to complete societal isolation. Gone is the concept of uni-tasking or focusing on doing one task well; society replaced it with multitasking to make one a more efficient person. However, in reality, iPhones have made individuals less efficient and less proficient in the tasks at hand. Homework takes longer and longer to do, chores pile up, drivers honk their horns and the iPhone buzzes on.

Arguably some critics would claim that iPhones have improved social skills and social connectivity. The smartphones offer an ability to connect with others outside of schools, cities, states, countries, continents even. This universal connection has provided a wider audience for authors of blogging sites such as Tumblr or MySpace, letting their words and thoughts have a much larger impact and influence on others. People who meet by chance in an airport or at a Science Convention can connect and become friends through instant messaging or inbox and this may provide opportunities for close friendships that could have never been possible without technology like iPhones. Various apps such as Pinterest and Instagram allow one to share photos or inspiration or hobbies with others and allow a deeper view into that individual’s persona. Opportunities to compete in games with one’s friends via the various gaming apps allow individuals to interact with those whom they may not live near enough to compete with in sports or pickup games. IPhones have brought so much more connectivity to modern society that life without seems lackluster and isolated. Au contraire, the devices have brought dis-connectivity and formed a modern society unable to relinquish the phones’ holds on every action.

The constant stream of media available through iPhones harms individuals’ thoughts, obstructs creativity, isolates families, damages the depth of friendships and distracts from the present tasks. What is the error in disconnection? What is so wrong in being alone, without distraction, with your individual thoughts, feelings, and the atmosphere of the present? Youth in today’s society has lost touch of that aspect of reality. Ray Bradbury’s predictions of the future in the 1900s startled readers who felt that his horrific expostulations were both insane and improbable. Flash forward sixty years and take a look around a public location. What do you see? You may notice an almost uniform focus on small, shiny, rectangular devices with glowing screens and scrolling pages, commanding the users’ attention unceasingly. Just as in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 in which the people were consumed by the Seashell radios, today’s society has become obsessed with the iPhone.  Depression rates skyrocket, social skills plummet, yet more iPhones are purchased per day than births in America. Not a moment passes by that a teen in America wants to miss and iPhones do not permit any grievous slip up in that area. There is something to be said for connectivity, as all things, in moderation, but iPhone use has surpassed extreme and borders on user enslavement to the technologies and wireless world.  Breakage of these bonds takes time and effort on individuals’ part but change must occur to prevent the decline of the current generations. Leaving iPhones in your car or purse on silent during a social event and checking it only in the case of an emergency would make a start on improving social skills. Leaving it plugged in or near a communal docking station when you returns home would help improve familial interactions and relationships. Gentle reminders for friends to neglect checking their phones when together or when driving would help as well. This effort must start somewhere, sometime; why not here, why not now? The reign of iPhones must come to an end.

attitude. it's a choice.

stick to it.

photo courtesy of GE, typography my own, quote, anonymous

Pain is temporary, pride is forever. 

Don't let your pain get in the way of your training or racing because by the end, you won't remember any of the pain, sweat, or tears... all that will matter is the outcome and that feeling of elated victory at the end of the race or challenge. 

Whether it's victory over mental barriers, your body, opponents, competitors, teammates, or all of the above, that feeling will only be multiplied when you know you have given it your all in everything you do. 

Push through the pain. 

You won't remember pain in the end.

 Just victory or defeat. That's it. 

So ya bettah not quit!

Prelude to Message from Garcia...

INITIATIVE

THE WORLD BESTOWS ITS BIG PRIZES, both in money and honors, for but one thing. And that is Initiative.

What is Initiative? I'll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told.

But next to doing the thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia: those who can carry a message get high honors, but their pay is not always in proportion.

Next, there are those who never do a thing until they are told twice: such get no honors and small pay.

Next, there are those who do the right thing only when Necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard-luck story.

Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we have the fellow who will not do the right thing even when some one goes along to show him how and stays to see that he does it: he is always out of a job, and receives the contempt he deserves, unless he happens to have a rich Pa (dad), in which case Destiny patiently awaits around the corner with a stuffed club.

WHERE DO YOU BELONG?