the terminal man.

The man had just touched down in Toronto, after a week’s vacation in Cuba with his lovely wife.  He had brought with him the latest and greatest book from a well-known bald-headed blogger, some little tome about “clans” or “hordes” or something like that…

Anyway, he had read the book with great interest, while he sat on the beach under an umbrella, sipping many, many cups of Cuban rum and the local version of Coke.  He had feverishly taken notes as he reflected on the words, and with the clarity of thought that comes with unplugging from the world, he had tried to figure out just what the hell kind of “gang” he was supposed to lead.

Of course the book never told him how to do that!

Details, details…

As the man was preparing for the “stop-and-go pedestrian traffic” that always seems to accompany the deplaning process, he noticed that the woman seated beside him had become quite agitated.

She had been fine for the entire flight, and now, it seemed as if she was about to explode with nervous energy.  She was almost shaking as she searched frantically through her handbag.

The man asked, “Is everything okay, ma’am?”

“My BlackBerry!  I CAN’T FIND MY BLACKBERRY!”

(“Umm, okaaaaaay…”, the man thought to himself, “Best.  Electronic leash.  Evar.”)

A few weeks later, it started to make sense.  The man enjoyed all things technological, and he loved to help people understand them, and how to put them to use to do what they needed to do.

“Right tool for the job”, he always said.

And one day, as he was daydreaming at his day job, he thought to himself, “Technology should enable us, not enslave us.”  That would be the cornerstone of his mission, somehow.

To help people make the best use of the technology available, and not be encumbered by it, or even ruled by it.

Yet, he stumbled along, unsure of what to do with it or how to do it.  He was perpetually distracted.  He had fallen victim to the technology himself…

And so, he decided to unplug for a while, to return to the clarity he had enjoyed on the beach in Cuba.  He pretty much stopped blogging, only left sporadic comments on a few blogs he enjoyed reading, and did his best to escape from that damned tweetie bird.

Eventually, it worked.  Something clicked, one day in late December.

He knew.

He set forth on a path, to work on not one, but two projects.  For you see, the two projects were intertwined because of who the man was, and who he knew.

The first project would ultimately come to serve the second, which was ironic, since both had existed all along, and the man had done all he could to ignore the second, while searching for the first.

–

Hello.

I have been working very hard on a couple of projects for the last little while.  The first started to take shape in my head mid-last year, though I did not know exactly how to get it going.  I needed to figure out the “who” – who would it serve.  The who turned out to be someone (many, many someones, actually) I already know.

Though I am not ready to reveal anything yet (mostly because blank web pages under construction are terribly boring to look at), this is where you will find news when it becomes available.

I had a funny thought tonight while I was out walking my dog.

No one ever tells you when your 6 week journey will start.

I thought I knew, I thought it had started a long time ago, and it turns out that for me, it really only started in late December of 2009.

I guess that’s why people say, work hard – keep trying to figure out what you want to do – one day, it will all become clear.

–

I promised Wendi I’d write a new post soon, so here you go Wendi!  Better late than never…

Posted on January 18, 2010 
Filed Under mind (mens mentis) | 28 Comments