Sending Word

Professor J,

First up is a movie recommendation. Imitation Game is the best thing I've seen in a long time. I came straight home and downloaded the biography of Alan Turing on my Kindle. Btw, you may have guessed that W&P is in the middle of a huge pile of reading material. I am only saved by the Kindle that holds many more so inconspicuously. I keep telling myself I won't buy any more until I finish all that I have. And then... It's a sickness really. ;)

I'm rereading my question about the time capsule and it sounds like something from a lame middle school essay assignment. But you provided a great answer.

I asked the question because frankly I expected a little more from such esteemed thinkers and revolutionaries. The coins made little sense to me, newspapers unimpressive, the remaining items perplexing. How valuable would a diary of a common person appear to us now! Or as you suggest items that they probably didn't feel were special enough to have been included. I agreed with all your suggestions. People study history and memorize the names and accomplishments of the famous, yet behind those (mostly) men are the passionate desires and dreams held close to the heart of the average person. I'd have liked to have seen something of that in the capsule.

Your recommendation of what we ought to include in a time capsule being buried now reminded me of a quote from The Book of Eli:

"People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now."

And your idea about including something by way of apology might at least make it clear that some of us tried. And yes, they might hate us a little less, though hopefully they'll be unaware of our extreme excess. But I'm sure that's doubtful since we document it all so swimmingly with reality television and magazines.

I'm having one of those periods of life when the universe seems to be trying to tell me something and you are unwittingly contributing to brick walls falling and what-not. I was just this morning reading a book in which the author quoted Amusing Ourselves to Death.

In case you are unaware the new trend in resolutions is to pick just one word to sum up your intention for the year. Courage, simplify, mindfulness are all fine candidates. My daughter chose brave. The one I settled on is deliberate. I'm hoping to focus from time to time on a different area of life and be intentional about it.

I could easily start with my time and stay there for the next 11 and a half months. Can you imagine what could get accomplished if we were all just intentional about how we spend our precious hours?  Or how we spend our money? What if we deliberately ate? Imagine us all being deliberate with our words. It all seems impossible even as I write it. We fritter away so much. So that idea of making "your choices fit your values even in little things as you can" might be something of great potential impact.

Wouldn't if be funny if you started a revolution like that?