iPads sells Hondas

Posted on July 31, 2010 by David

A MacWorld forum question “Is the iPad revolutionary?” drew this response: “…is the iPad as revolutionary as the car, or is it more evolutionary, such as the development of the SUV to replace the minivan and station wagon?  Sure, the SUV changed things, but not as much as the first step of widespread car ownership.”

In a world where truth and perception pretty much always dance awkwardly together, maybe we should ask, “Which came first, the iPad or the Car?”  The Denver Post (7/31/10) landed on our doormat this morning with an advertising sleeve. The word Pad in huge letters appeared above the fold and the Honda logo and pitch below. I wondered, is the dealer trying to sell a tepid car on the sizzle of an iPad? Is the buzz about the iPad more wish for a revolution than a bona fide revolution? Is the real revolution a shift in our internal expectation from the PC-as-tool to the iPad-as-experience? of connection? of freedom? of power? An iPad as spokes-technology for Honda—no “Spokes-potato” here—is an amazing juxtaposition of the first of something new and the last of something old.

Honda advertisement offering iPad

Above the fold…

Denver Post ad for Honda

The Full Monty

My bottom line question: What are Apple and Honda doing to help us make the transition from the unsustainable age of petroleum to a sustainable age of living in harmony with a vulnerable planet. Which technology contributes more to awareness of human limitations and possibilities: the Apple iPad or the Honda Hybrid?

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Basement Questions

Posted on May 17, 2010 by David

Harvesting the Archive

Why would anyone root around a dusty basement for old documents? The allure of wine cellars and the necessity of furnaces notwithstanding, basements have a bad rep.
And yet a dozen of us systematically gathered town meeting documents from a basement storeroom at the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in Chicago. Though long in the tooth and mostly arthritic, these 170 cabinets practically tick with the background radiation of history and creativity.

Town Meeting 76 Logo

The story begins a couple of decades earlier, but we’re diving into the stream in the mid-’70s. The gist: “Little-known church renewal group helps Americans celebrate Bicentennial. Volunteers lead town meetings in every U.S. county.” We’re making sure that we don’t lose any of that 35-year-old documentation.
America’s 200th birthday came at a time of growing political cynicism. Representational democracy in the U.S. was already in disrepair. Citizen participation mostly meant allowing the extraverts and the annoyed to comment. 5,000 town meetings that engaged mayors, doctors, teachers and janitors on an equal footing for several hours at a time gave people a taste of real participation.

Whittier, CA Town Meeting

The concept was simple: mobilize volunteers, work through local leaders, gather citizens and provide a simple process. Elicit hopes and concerns. Help people create projects for moving forward. Have a few creatives conjure up a new community story, song and symbol. Listen to group reports, sing the community song and hand everyone a document on the way out the door.

Planet Earth

Why the interest in old town meeting documents? They sampled the sociological pulse of grassroots America in the 1970s. Identical questions were asked 5,000 times. What do you hope for? What stands in the way? What will you do about it? The questions gauge a peoples’ sense of their own power. The answers reveal whether people know how to create fulfillment in the here and now. They are the questions communities of faith should always be asking their neighbors—and themselves.
In a decade when people across our planet must act together, how could we help one another ask these questions 500,000 times?

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Is it possible to remember the future?

Posted on April 16, 2010 by David

Some of us who became young adults in 1960s America watched the Viet Nam war and the cultural upheaval in American society through the wrong end of the telescope. What was happening right in front of our noses appeared to be far, far away. In truth, what was so small was our acquaintance with our own hearts. If I didn’t agonize over the misadventures of America in Southeast Asia, it was at least because I shut myself off from the brutalization of the Vietnam-era soldiers who are today asking for handouts on street corners and the men and women without arms or legs who survive all over Vietnam.

I mention the challenge of seeing life clearly by way of introducing a short bit of history and setting a brief context for a critical question about whether or not it’s possible any more to “stand on the shoulders of those who came before.”

In 1968, a weekend seminar called “The 20th Century Theological Revolution” cracked open a great many minds and hearts that had previously been guarding the territory of emotion, introspection, self awarness and selfless service. Suddenly our view of the world came into focus. The landscape of human need and community care got a whole lot closer. It became screamingly clear that the injustice, suffering and misery in the world lay at the feet of anyone who had his or her eyes and heart closed. It was an eye-opening experience.

Continue reading →

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“The end of the world as we know it.”

Posted on April 5, 2010 by David

Somehow I missed the music of the ’50s and ’60s and so I’m catching up in the ’10s. A fast Internet connection, a subscription to Pandora, a couple of speakers* in my study—and I can listen to streaming music as I work. R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” caught my ear: fast, funky and provocative. These days, “The end of the world as we know it” seems like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the ,truth about life in general and my life in particular. Maybe you feel the same way.

Everyday there is something new to learn: a new version of Photoshop, shifting my domains from one registrar to another, launching a blog. And those are the easy ones. It gets tougher. How do I support an adult daughter who is learning how to coach a young adult son who is learning how to be a good partner to his girl friend, both of whom are in the sink or swim school of hard knocks for being good parents of a new baby-due-any-minute-now, all at the same time. That’s a learning curve! If you followed the family tree, you’ll note that I have to learn how to become a decent grandfather and great-grandfather all at the same time. I’m too young for that kind of challenge. It really is the end of the world as I know it.

In the ’80s, R.E.M. sang , “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”

Continue reading →

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Leaning forward, filling backward

Posted on April 2, 2010 by David

There’s a lot of craziness going on these days. Broken political systems. Indecent wealth on the top and innocent suffering at the bottom. Name calling and shouting matches pretending to be free speech and civic responsibility. It’s not a pretty sight.

Streaming music and YouTube videos are awesome. My new Wacom Bamboo Dock and mini-apps is pure magic. We’re bathed in the delight of world music, fusions of this and that, instant downloads and HD on demand, and still the celebrities go nuts and get divorced while the homeboys shoot ’em up and babies die. We live in this amazing age of global connection and universal possibility and still the powers that be are fiddling around with their hands in the till and their minds on the next election.

I think we mostly know better, but can’t quite figure out what to do with the messiness that comes along with all of the miracles. Everything is too big, too complex, too entrenched, too scary, too heavy to lift or too hot to handle. I tend to ping-pong back and forth just trying to keep my mind sorted out and my attitude up. But it eats at my heart to see society bog down and people stay forgotten. We’ve got work to do before we play and playing is too much fun to burden with a guilty conscience or a distracting to do list because we didn’t stick to our knitting—caring for our neighbors. So what’s a cultural creative with an itch to write to do? Continue reading →

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