Time in a bottle...

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
[...]
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them...
- Jim Croce

I used to love this song when it was out. Well, still do.

What is the point, you ask? I recently purchased a new computer. My first new desktop in 8 years (laptop is 5 years old). This thing is beast (as the kids say). Anyhoo, my soon to be excessed desktop has a 3.5 floppy disk drive. Some of you have no idea what that is. I had to add the drive, even in 2003. Not even an option now. So, this is literally my last chance to clean out the box of old floppy disks. This box used to represent the high point of technology. 2 MB high- density floppys. Wooooooo...

As you might imagine, the files on these antiques date back as far as 1992. And what a treasure trove it is. Some highlights:

- June 1995: Made an invitation to a friend's son's 11th birthday party
- August 1995: That same friend and I ran into Clyde Drexler in the Downtown Tunnels and he actually stopped to talk to us. So I sent him a thank you note.
- May 1996: My apartment on Castle Court was burglarized and my fancy new (then) cell phone was stolen. Required the cancellation of my account with GTE Mobilnet (anybody even know what that became/was absorbed into?).

Now, I'm on the 1994 disk. One of the first things? "30 things to do to relieve stress from Jon Mittelhauser's personal page on the NCSA Mosaic." So many archaisms in it! For one thing, web pages were still called personal pages. Another? Number 30: Do your assignments in binary code. (Yes, I know all modern computer applications boil down to binary code.) Also found the funeral bulletin for the friend of a dear friend. Whose cremains would ultimately spend an inordinate amount of time in my trunk— a story for another day.

1993: Apparently, I did a lot of typing for friends. I found complaint letters of all kind (from me, as well as from said friends) and several REALLY old recital programs. One letter I composed for a colleague was an application for her son to "Moo Montana's Posse." A letter to an old friend overseas– who is still overseas and still a good friend. Very chatty, that letter. My bill-paying schedule (before the mortgage, if only I knew then how good I had it...). The proof of an interview I gave to the UT Health Science Center staff newsletter about being a desk jockey by day and opera chorister by night. A letter I wrote to my mother while recovering from a vocal fold hemorrhage (I couldn't talk, so no phones– this was before widespread home use of the interwebs).

1992: Recipes! (Didn't cook then, don't cook now) Ratatouille enjoyed with Shepherd School buddies. Italian Nut Balls from my friend Claire's fabulous mom, who also made a mean Pineapple Stuffing.

Lots of memories, good and bad. Some are now permanently disapparated; others live to fight another day on another storage medium.

G'Night Hobbit Fans!

Ah, youth (and other non-terminal diseases)!

It's been far too long, Hobbit Fans! I confess that some of the itches this blog was meant to scratch have been soothed by the beast that is Facebook. I can fire off a bon mot or some trifle that catches my attention soooo easily with a link or a status update. But I haven't forgotten you. And yes, the dissertation is yet unfinished. But soon, my pretties, soon!

Facebook also has a blog-ish function called Notes, but that doesn't go out into the wide world (which is what I call the 4 of you still paying attention). These posts go there, too, thanks to the miracle of RSS. I guess what I'm trying to say is, sorry for leaving you to languish.

What Facebook has also afforded me is a glimpse into the hearts and minds of friends and acquaintances. I think a lot (vs. alot) of people forget that what goes on the 'net stays on the 'net and that privacy doesn't always mean what you think it means. So, people say what they mean and it's sometimes something they wouldn't say if they know who all was reading it.

Today was a prime example. Someone I consider a friend has a friend I would never consider a friend. I don't know this third party, but I know what's in his heart, since he used a word I find abhorrent to describe someone I greatly respect and with whom I share an ethnic heritage. This is not the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last. Were it not for Facebook, I would not know that this person even exists and certainly would not know what he thinks of uppity black people. Because of Facebook, however, I was assured that other people I know and respect (and even love) also find not only the word, but the uncouth discourse, as abhorrent as I do. So it's not all bad.

Another time on Facebook, I commented on a Houston political issue that also concerned issues of LGBTQ equality. If you don't know, I have pretty strong views on it and am wholly supportive of it. Especially as LGBTQ rights equate to the Civil Rights movement.

Now, I know a lot of young people. I'm even related to some. One of them jumped into the fray with both feet, perhaps being unaware that I have a lot of friends who are well-versed in the art of rhetoric. They kind of ate my young friend alive, perhaps being unaware that he was a young person. I didn't agree with his standpoint, of course, but I found this to be a teachable moment.

What I (later) told him had less to do with his views and beliefs and more to do with the fact that those things can and do change with experience (experience also, hopefully, allows one to make more elegant arguments, but I digress). So here's what I said:

You kinda jumped into it over there on my status. No hard feelings. I applaud the fact that you have a strong faith that guides you.

What I want for you, though, is to entertain the notion that things are not as black and white as it is convenient to believe they are.

As you grow and get older, you will find that it is in the gray areas that we need to forge who we are and what we stand for. I have learned so many things and had so many of my beliefs and assumptions challenged. It is in those challenges that I was forced to look at my beliefs and assumptions, really examine them and their foundations. Then I was able to truly own them as my own— tested and found to stand.

Please do not ever allow fear and misunderstanding to guide you. And if you find yourself challenged, do not hold tight to a position just because it's the position you've already held— or because others have given it to you.

Fear is just that, and usually it comes from not knowing that which you fear. Believe me when I say being black and being gay are very much the same issue. Go back through your history books and look at the reasons— some of them Biblical!!— why white people said blacks were not full members of humanity, why servility was the only thing we were good for, why we were genetically inferior to whites, why we were demonized, and why, even in 2009, you can scare some people by even inferring that a black person could be in charge of them and theirs.

No human created by God is wrong, inferior, or bad. You may not like some peoples' actions or behaviors, but their personhood is a gift from our Creator God and born to His glory.

Just like you cannot assume what people will do because they are a different race or gender from you, you cannot assume (and therefore fear) what they will do because they are not built with the same sexual orientation as you.

I think my counsel applies to a lot of issues— and probably to a lot of people. So I'm sharing it.

Now, back to that dissertation...