On 9/11 and Filling in the Gaps

Photo: Kenji Ross

The boy, who looked to be about four, tugged on his Chicago Cubs cap and took several practice swings. A man moved in close and tossed him an underhanded pitch. The boy swung and missed.

He missed the next four pitches as well, but did not appear the least bit fazed.

While this appeared to be a competitive game of softball, showcasing talents of people of all ages, exceptions were made for little ones – no strikeouts allowed.

On the sixth pitch, the boy made contact – a dribbler toward the shortstop.

The girl who was playing short, who looked to be maybe 13, was thin as a rail, but she has the arm of Derek Jeter. She threw out grown men on several occasions. So, the play looked to be routine for her.

All of this took place as I walked around the park and I was screened from the play, so I didn’t see what happened next, but the girl with the cannon arm didn’t field the ball cleanly or the ball found a hole. Either way, the boy slid headfirst toward the first base bag, barely beating the throw.

People cheered from the stands as the cloud of dirt settled. The boy stood up, tugged on his cap again, and got ready to advance to second as the next better stepped into the box.

I’m just guessing, but I got the feeling that this was a church group out enjoying a Sunday afternoon at a local park. People of all ages, races, shapes and sizes played. It was beautiful to see. There was something so innocent about it. And then it struck me.

The little boy has no recollection of the events of September 11, 2001. He wasn’t even born yet. And the girl with the cannon arm would have just been two. So, she probably doesn’t have any recollection either. That’s good and bad at the same time.

When they reach an appropriate age though, the people around them will need to fill in the gaps about what happened that day. Otherwise, the events that changed our country will not seem real to them.

My grandmother used to keep a photo of her husband on a stand by her front door. He died 17 years before she did, but she always kept his memory front and center. One of my nieces was born five years after my grandfather died, but she will tell you that she feels like she knew him. The pictures and the stories we shared made her feel that way.

Filling in the gaps for the generation behind us our is responsibility. If we don’t do it, the stories, dreams, beliefs, struggles and triumphs of all the previous generations will die with us.

Remembering Phyllis Diller

Photo: Public domain

Phyllis Diller always reminded me of the woman in the neighborhood who never changed out of her nightgown but still roamed around in her yard, talking to passersby as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Every neighborhood has one.

It’s beautiful to live that way.

When I heard that Diller passed away yesterday, at the age of 95, four memories of her came flooding back – her crazy hair, her unique laugh, her self-deprecating humor, and that long cigarette holder she waved around during her routines.

As a boy, my mom took my sister and me to my grandma’s on Saturdays. All of us headed to Kmart where I ended up with a cherry Icee with one of those famous bubble top lids, or a milk carton full of chocolate malted milk balls. Saturdays were glorious as a result.

After the shopping was complete, we went back to grandma’s where she would cook a meal (the best pot roast in history, potatoes and green beans) before we settled in to watch the Carol Burnett Show and other variety shows.

I was too young to remember any of the bits specifically, but I do remember Burnett’s signature ear tug, Tim Conway’s portrayal of a character named Dorf, Flip Wilson dressing up like a woman, and Diller making fun of herself as she appeared on these various shows. Of course, that was the same era in which Johnny Carson was the master of late night television.

It was a golden era of comedy and it became part of who we were as a culture.

If I got out of bed with crazy hair and failed to comb it, Mom was sure to say something like, “You have Phyllis Diller hair.” If somebody did something wrong, he or she would invoke Flip Wilson theology and say, “The devil made me do it!” Conway’s “Dorf on Golf” became a video that was a connecting point between my dad and me.

We can never go back, and that is probably not a bad thing. Oh, it would be nice to experience good, relatively clean humor like the old guard used to produce. But we have Bill Cosby, Jeff Foxworthy, Mark Lowry and others. The thing is, a good comedian knows herself and the culture she lives well enough to find humor in the mundane of that era, so every generation needs to produce new comedians.

Every generation needs a Phyllis Diller, a Johnny Carson, a Bob Hope, a Lucille Ball, a Tim Conway, a Flip Wilson or a Carol Burnett. We were just fortunate enough to have all of them at the same time.

*****

I’ve been combing through YouTube videos this morning looking for some gems of Diller in action. This seems like a perfect one to share with you – it’s from the Ed Sullivan Show in October, 1969:

Weeping with Those Who Weep

The Porter family in 2005
www.trishporter.com

It’s a fallacy to think we always have tomorrow.

Last Thursday, Pat Porter, a two-time Olympian distance runner was piloting a twin-engine Cessna that crashed, killing everyone on board, including Pat, his 15-year-old son Connor and Connor’s friend Connor Mantsch.

I’ve known Pat’s wife, Trish, for a number of years. She too has competed in the Olympics – in fact, that is how she met Pat. I wrote a story for Christianity Today, International about her journey as an Olympian and about how she continues to compete at high levels. I also played a small role in helping her with her book, Rekindle Your Dreams, that was released in 2010.

The USA Today reports that just before the crash, Pat and Trish exchanged a series of humorous text messages. Her last text to Pat asked him when he was coming home.

When I heard about Trish’s loss on Thursday night, it felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I ached for her and her 11-year-old daughter Shannon. I still do. She wrote this heartbreaking message on her Facebook page:

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words. This has been the most difficult time in my life and my heart is broken. I am so thankful that Pat and Connor loved the Lord and had a personal relationship with Jesus. God's strength and your prayers are what is keeping me going. I can't neglect Shannon is too! I wish I could respond to each of you personally but I am just not able to. Know that I will read each message and you are part of my healing process. Thank you. I have included the link to the local t.v. station Ch. 4 that aired a very nice tribute to Pat and Connor.

Here’s the video she linked to. I could barely get through it.



None of us know when we will breathe our last breath. Don’t wait to live deeply or to love genuinely. Say everything you need to say now and do everything you need to do. We are not promised tomorrow.

A Red Wall of Support

Sometimes you stumble into something and you learn about its significance later. That’s what happened to me on Saturday.

My brother-in-law turned right onto a street in Columbia, Missouri that was lined with Harley Davidsons as I looked on from the passenger seat. The motorcycles had signage that identified their owners as the Patriot Guard Riders.

Everywhere we looked, we saw the American flag. Every motorcycle displayed one and many people who were milling around had one in their hands. One person draped a huge flag across his or her truck’s tailgate.

My brother-in-law and I kicked around ideas about what might be going on – a patriotism parade of some sort or annual festival? Neither one of us is from Columbia, so we had no idea. We were there from my niece’s soccer tournament.

The mood wasn’t festive. It was somber, determined.

I shot a few photos with my cell phone from inside the vehicle and figured I would look up the event later. Once I was back in my hotel room, I found this article in the Columbia Tribune: ‘Red Wall’ of supporters comfort fallen soldier’s family.

Turns out that Columbia native Sterling Wyatt, 21, was killed while serving in Afghanistan on July 11 and when an acquaintance found at that the hatemongers from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka planned to protest Wyatt’s funeral, she decided to organize a small gathering to show Wyatt’s family their support.

She had no idea that thousands of people would show up.

They wore red shirts, forming a red shield to protect Wyatt’s family as they entered First Baptist Church to mourn the loss of their loved one. The line of support also ran along Broadway Street and on the route to the funeral home.

The event occurred after the Boone County Fair parade. Apparently, my brother-in-law and I arrived after the parade and the funeral, because, like I said, the mood was somber and the supporters seemed to be breaking up.

The good news is, the red wall worked. The newspaper reported that “About six people from the Westboro group held signs at College and Broadway, although most of the messages were blocked by American flags that Patriot Guard members waved nearby.”

Several times, Wyatt’s family came out of the church to thank the supporters. I imagine the tears flowed both ways.

I wasn’t wearing red that day, but as I wrote this after learning about what took place, I envisioned myself wearing a red shirt.

*****

As I was about to post this, I found this video on YouTube about the Patriot Guard Riders. They have been showing up at funerals of fallen soldiers for years. God bless this group for mourning with those who mourn. 

Couple Dies Holding Hands

Photo: Through My Eyes

Have you heard about Gordon and Norma Yeager – the couple from Iowa that died last week while holding hands? If not, watch this three minute video (unfortunately, embedding has been disabled). Get ready for tears.

Gordon died an hour before Norma did and their children say they are blessed that it worked out this way because neither one of them would have wanted to go on without the other one. One of their children, Dennis, describes his parent’s final moments with such beauty in the video.

“It was really strange,” he said. “They were holding hands. Dad stopped breathing. I couldn’t figure out what was going on because the heart monitor was still going. And we were like, ‘But he isn’t breathing. How could he still have a heartbeat?’ She [a nurse] checked and everything and said, ‘That’s because they’re still holding hands and it’s going through them. Her heart was beating through him and [the monitor was] picking it up.”

On the KCCI website, they have posted the video along with a poll, asking: “After reading this story … do you believe in true love?” More than 86,000 favorable votes have been cast, equaling 93% of the respondents, saying either, “Yes, I have found it,” or “Yes, I’m still looking.”

Count me among the, “Yes, I’m still looking.”

The Ramen Girl

Brittany Murphy plays Abby
(Photo: Daniel Case)

A couple of nights ago, as I was browsing Netflix for a lighthearted movie to watch before I fell asleep, I ran across a movie called The Ramen Girl. It was billed as lighthearted, set in Japan, and starred Brittany Murphy.

So much has changed since this movie was released in 2008. Murphy died a year later. And Japan – well you know what Japan is experiencing right now. This perfectly preserved bit of art, in which time is frozen, seemed to be just what I was looking for.

Murphy plays an American named Abby who travels to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend, Ethan. He leaves her early in the movie. The logical thing for her to do would be to return to America, but something is drawing her to stay in Tokyo.

She spots a quaint neighborhood ramen noodle house near where she is staying and she drops in one night during a rainstorm. The place is closed but the owner, a man named Maezumi signals for her to sit down. As she does, the realization that she is directionless in life overwhelms her and she begins to sob.

Maezumi is busy making her a bowl of ramen noodles when his wife, Reiko, sees Abby. Since neither Maezumi or Reiko can speak English and since Abby cannot speak Japanese, Reiko can only wonder what’s wrong with Abby.

“What happened?” Reiko says to Maezumi. “What’s wrong?” [Subtitles are in use.]

“Who the hell knows?” Maezumi says. “I guess she’s hungry.”

“Is she hurt?” Reiko says. “Do you think she needs to go to the hospital?”

“Maybe if she eats, she’ll get out of here,” Maezumi says.

Abby continues to sob at her table while Maezumi prepares her bowl of ramen noodles.

“Do foreigners eat spring onion?” Maezumi says to Reiko. “They must eat spinach.” He drops some into the bowl with the noodles. “Popeye loves spinach.”

Reiko adds what looks to be a piece of pork and Maezumi walks the bowl over to Abby.

“I don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” Abby says to a confused Maezumi. “I’m a complete mess. My cousin, Heather, just got her Ph.D. Here I am, four years out of college – Phi Beta Kappa – and I’ve got nothing to show for it. Not one single thing. And I thought I was so brave coming to Tokyo, but Ethan ... just ... left me .. and I’m, I’m ... so alone.”

“Eat,” Maezumi says. “Girlie. Eat. Eat.”

“What?” Abby says.

“What did she say?” Reiko says to Maezumi.

“No idea,” Maezumi says. “She’s a lunatic.” He hands Abby some chopsticks. “Eat, please.”

“Thank you,” Abby says.

“She’s nuts,” Maezumi says to Reiko.

“Eat,” Reiko says to Abby.

“Thank you.”

Maezumi and Reiko begin to clean up the place while Abby eats her noodles. As she finishes, her countenance is difference. She’s even able to smile. Maezumi and Reiko refuse to take any money from her for the food. She hugs Reiko and before she can leave, Maezumi stops her to give her an umbrella, which she takes.

Two simple acts of kindness – a bowl of ramen noodles and an umbrella – help her begin to pick up the pieces of her life. Maybe that’s why we do luncheons after funerals in America. Maybe that’s why friends, family members, and neighbors bring each other casseroles after a tragedy strikes. And maybe that’s why friends who have lost touch share a bottle of wine on a Sunday afternoon.

The irony of all this is that so many people in Japan at this very moment have been without food and water since the earthquake and tsunami hit. In the spirit of The Ramen Girl, maybe we could all find a way to donate a few bucks to a relief effort that will provide much needed food and water for people in desperate need.

Last Surviving WWI Veteran Turns 110

Local paper says America’s last surviving World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, turns 110 today. Hope somebody is capturing his story.

That’s what I tweeted and put on Facebook yesterday. And then, being curious enough to Google his name, I found out that someone did capture his story. This comes from a West Virginia television website:

A kickstarter.com campaign launched Jan. 31 with hopes of raising $150,000 for a feature-length documentary about Buckles’ life. The film, “Pershing’s Last Patriot,” is the culmination of four years of footage and interviews with the former soldier collected by [David] DeJonge [the family spokesperson and Buckles’ biographer], a portrait photographer from Grand Rapids, Mich., who began researching war veterans in 1996.

The same website says Buckles served in England and France during WWI, serving as both an ambulance driver and a prisoner-of-war escort. And amazingly, he was also a POW in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. The website goes on to say:

4.7 million American’s served in WW1 and Frank is the last voice of a generation that has slipped through our fingers without documentation and without a national memorial. Frank is the last breath and the last soul to have witnessed the Western Front of World War One.

Check out the footage of Buckles from the website:



NBC Nightly News did a story about him a while back and it captured how he felt after returning home from WWI to find that nobody even acknowledged he had been in a war:



I’m thankful that someone like David DeJonge has spent as much time as he has to listen to and record Buckles’ story. But Buckles isn’t the only elderly person with a story and DeJonge isn’t the only one with a camcorder. Most of us now have the technology to conduct video interviews with our parents and grandparents. Why not set aside some time to do so?

Two years ago, I began interviewing my mom with a digital audio recorder. We’ve done interviews about her childhood, her pets, her school years, her courtship with my dad, and we’re up to her work years. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these interviews, but it’s time to get back to work. And now that I have a camcorder, I’m going to shoot video of the interviews as well as using my digital audio recorder.

Outcasts, Weirdos and Freaks

Photo: Maja Dumat - flickr.com

I went to hear a lecture on Friday night about the transcendental movement of the early to mid-1800s. As the lecturer spoke about the beliefs that grounded the various movements before and after transcendentalism, he touched briefly on southern fiction (Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, William Faulkner, etc.), saying those authors often used characters who were outcasts, weirdos and freaks to speak the truth into a situation.

He quoted O’Connor as saying, “Whenever I am asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.” I found a fuller context of this quote on a blog called The Reformed Reader, where O’Connor goes on to say, in part, “To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man. And in the South, the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological.”

In other words, they recognized freaks because their theological understanding of man drove them to examine their own hearts and on some level, we’re all freaks, so it's easy to spot another one. Some of us are freaky looking. Some of us have freaky mannerisms. Some of us have freaky beliefs.

Usually, we find other freaks of the same ilk to hang out with so we can let our freaky hair down and pretend we aren’t freaks. They don’t have to agree with us about everything or even look like us necessarily; they just have to accept us – think Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld. Who among us hasn’t wanted to live in one of those worlds?

While I’m not a Lady Gaga fan, I’m intrigued by her story and her fanbase, whom she refers to as “little monsters.” According to a story in New York Magazine, she began working with a record producer to find her sound, style and look. One of those experiments led her down the Michelle Branch-Avril Lavigne singer-songwriter route, but it didn’t work.

Wendy Starland, a singer who was responsible for connecting Gaga with the producer, pointed out why it didn’t work, “Those artists are usually classically beautiful, very steady, and more tranquil, in a way.” At this point, she wasn’t into fashion. She wore leggings and sweatshirts and she came into the studio a couple of times in sweatpants.

Wanting to be a star, she eventually went on to study trends in pop culture and she re-made herself as a performer rather than a singer. After she became a star, she began referring to her fans as “little monsters,” which she means in the most affectionate way. She knows how it feels to not fit in. She even wrote a manifesto of little monsters, and she closed it this way:

When you’re

lonely,

I’ll be lonely too,
And this is the fame.

Lady Gaga

Notice how she put the word “lonely” way out by itself? She knows how many of her fans – the outcasts, weirdos and freaks – feel, and while they, like other outcasts, weirdos and freaks find comfort in the company of one another, they also feel the same isolation the rest of us freaks of different stripes feel when they aren’t together.

On some level, we’re all freaks. Some of us are freaky looking. Some of us have freaky mannerisms. Some of us have freaky beliefs. Acknowledging that might help us to cut our fellow freaks a little slack once in a while.

Fastest Rising Searches on Google in 2010

Google released its "fastest rising searches in 2010" list over the weekend. I'm not sure why they didn't release their over all top 10 searches like Yahoo did -- maybe because "BP Oil Spill," "World Cup" and "iPhone" aren't as curious as "Chatroulette," "Friv" or "Myxer."

Here's the list:

1. Chatroulette: I have never heard this word, so I added to the trend by googling it and I found out it is webcam/chat website that matches up random people. I don't get the allure.
   
   
2. iPad: I get this one. iPads are popular. I don't have an iPad though and can't see myself ever getting one. And it's ironic that I'm typing this post on a netbook, given that iPads were supposed to kill off netbooks.
   
   
3. Justin Bieber: No comment.
   
   
4. Nicki Minaj: Added to the trend yet again since I've never heard of her. Turns out she's a hip hop artist.
   
   
5. Friv: Never heard of this either. Now I know it's an online game, but I'm completely lost when I visit the website.
   
   
6. Myxer: Still out of the loop. Never heard of it. A quick search says the website is "the best way to get the stuff you want onto your mobile phone." That could be useful. Will have to check it out.
   
   
7. Katy Perry: I don't get the craze.
   
   
8. Twitter: Ah, something I know and love. If you aren't already following me, follow along at @leewarren. As long as you aren't a bot, a spammer, or a company focused on spamming me, I'll follow back.
   
   
9. Gamezer: Haven't heard of this until now, but I see that it's a multiplayer online game website. Looks like it could be fun.
   
   
10. Facebook: Why are people googling Facebook? I don't get it. Why not just go to www.facebook.com?

Turn Out the Lights

Monday Night Football. No matter who was playing, I couldn't wait to watch it when I was a teenager. I thought about the game all day at school. After we had supper, Mom would make some Jiffy Pop popcorn and we'd gather in the living room for three hours of football bliss. I couldn't wait for the opening music to start.

If you are close to my age and shared my love for MNF, you can't forget Tony Dorsett going 99 yards from scrimmage against the Vikings in 1983. Or William "The Refrigerator" Perry scoring a touchdown as running back for the Bears in 1985. Or Bo Jackson going 91 yards from scrimmage against the Seahawks in 1987, running through the end zone and into the tunnel, and seemingly, out into the parking lot.

Those were good times.

But every bit as much as I remember those plays, I remember the guys in the broadcast booth too. Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith made the broadcast interesting. Cosell has been gone for a while now. He died in 1995. A couple of days ago, Meredith died. The first thing I thought about when I heard he was gone was his signature moment in the broadcast booth each week when one team put the other away – the moment he sang, "Turn out the lights, the party's over."

Yesterday, I wanted to hear it again. Maybe you do too:

Learning from the Chilean Mine Rescue

The fifth miner to emerge from the San Jose mine is
Osman Araya, 29, after he was trapped for 69 days after
the collapse of a tunnel on August 5. (UPI/Hugo
Infante/Government of Chile Photo via Newscom)

As the 33 miners were pulled out of the capsule in Chile one by one on live television Tuesday night and all through the day yesterday, the process made me feel conflicting emotions.

On one hand, I was elated. I loved hearing the people chant and sing as each miner exited the capsule. I loved seeing the reunions with family and loved ones. The emotions were saw raw and so real. And that's what made me feel a little uncomfortable – almost as we were watching something that was too intimate, something that wasn't meant to be seen by strangers.

But the Chilean government set it up that way. This wasn't a bunch of paparazzi chasing a buck. It was a country wanting to celebrate the life, near death, and resurrection-like ascent of 32 of its citizens, plus one citizen of another country. Knowing that made it feel more acceptable.

As the rescue efforts neared an end yesterday, Bill Bennett said something on CNN that was so true, "Things go by so fast – particularly good things. You can savor this one – each one coming up." He was right. The cheering never got old. As each guy surfaced, Camp Hope cheered. As each guy was placed on a gurney and shuffled off to receive medical treatment, he floated through a group of people who formed a line on both sides of him and clapped for him.

Watching this happen over and over, it made me wonder if we are clapping for the wrong things in life. Or, at the very least, if we are missing opportunities to cheer for reasons that really matter.

I'm a sportswriter. I love sports. I cheer for athletes (when I'm not in the press box). But in recent years, I find myself cheering for athletes because of their humanity and because of their guts more than their jersey color.

I cheered for Joannie Rochette as she took the ice in February to skate in the Olympics just two days after her mother died. I cheered for John Isner at Wimbledon after playing the longest match in history, but still wanting to come back and put on a good show for fans. Getting overly excited when my team wins the Super Bowl doesn't have the same appeal to me it once did.

And that brings me to my point.

How different might the world look if we stood outside the cancer ward and cheered as a friend walked out after receiving her last treatment? How different might the world look if we stood outside the detox unit and cheered for the family member who successfully completed much needed treatment? How different might the world look if we looked for reasons to cheer louder for people we know than for celebrities we don't?

Gauging moods on Twitter

Trends intrigue me. The way we track them intrigues me too.

The USA Today has an article on their website reporting research that indicates “people are the happiest during Sunday mornings and saddest during Thursday evenings” based on some 300 million tweets over a three year period.

Researchers used “happy” and “sad” words to gauge moods, using a process called “Affective Norms for English Words.”

Here are the top words on their lists:

Happy words
1. paradise
2. laughter
3. friendly
4. sweetheart
5. affection
6. excellence
7. romantic
8. pleasure
9. treasure
10. rollercoaster

Sad words
1. betray
2. grief
3. headache
4. failure
5. sick
6. debt
7. fearful
8. upset
9. bomb
10. seasick

Looking over this list, I’m not convinced I buy their conclusions.

Someone might have tweeted, “It’s just another day in paradise” while meaning he is stuck inside his cubicle walls again. Another person might have tweeted, “Just a little friendly advice, you better get out of my way.” In both cases, “happy words” would be anything but happy.

Someone might have tweeted, “Avatar was da bomb” or “I might have experienced failure recently, but it was all just part of my journey toward success.” In both cases, “sad words” aren’t at all sad.

Context matters.

Integrity

Print and broadcast journalists are using the word “integrity” a lot these days when reporting about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – not so much as it relates to BP, but more so as it relates to the well itself.

BP plans to do an “integrity test” on the new cap, which according to this article, includes closing valves on the new cap and then checking them to make sure the cap can handle high pressure.

If the pressure readings are too low, it’s an indication that oil is leaking into the surrounding mud and rock formations below the gulf floor.

An article on the EngineerLive website makes this point about well integrity:

After many years in services well structures may become unstable due to corrosion of the conductor, surface and production casings. Many of these areas are unseen and corrosion can go unnoticed. To prevent potential structural failures, which in many cases can lead to disastrous consequences, casings need to be strengthened and protected from further corrosion. Densit provides complete solutions for reinstatement of the well integrity using UHPC (Ultra High Performance Cementitious) material.

Densit UHPC material provides structural integrity of the well conductor and casings, together with effective protection against corrosion. These benefits are usually achieved without any adverse effects on production rates.

I’ve been thinking about integrity in this context and it has given me a better understanding of what it means. Integrity not only stands up under high pressure, but it requires high pressure to test for unseen areas of corrosion.

I don’t think this means we ought to go looking for high pressure situations, but I also don’t think we ought to go running from them either. When they come, they make for good opportunities to learn our true weaknesses, and then, hopefully, to do something about them.

Bookless libraries?

As someone whose home is being overrun with books, I read this article on the NRP website with interest: Stanford Ushers In The Age Of Bookless Libraries.

A “bookless library” seems like an oxymoron. But in this case, it makes a lot of sense. The library is an engineering library and according to the article, information in that field becomes obsolete quickly, as evidenced by this excerpt:

The new library is set to open in August with 10,000 engineering books on the shelves — a decrease of more than 85 percent from the old library. Stanford library director Michael Keller says the librarians determined which books to keep on the shelf by looking at how frequently a book was checked out. They found that the vast majority of the collection hadn’t been taken off the shelf in five years.

Keller expects that, eventually, there won’t be any books on the shelves at all.
“As the world turns more and more, the items that appeared in physical form in previous decades and centuries are appearing in digital form,” he says.

It makes sense to digitize such a library as much as possible as part of the Google Books Library Project given that text books cannot keep up.

I have a set of encyclopedias in my basement that haven’t been used in 30 years. They are from the late 1940s. They were great at the time, and even for school reports when I was a kid since they were all I had, but as information changes, we need to have access to it.

But what does this mean for mainstream libraries?

Seems that the writing is on the wall. The article goes on to say, “According to a survey by the Association of Research Libraries, American libraries are spending more of their money on electronic resources and less on books.” But, as I said in a post back in January:

What about the feel and smell of books?

I’m starting to believe both are over rated.

A couple of years ago, I edited a novel for a publishing company. They sent it to me in a .pdf file and I printed it – all 500 or so pages. Five pages into the novel I was completely engrossed in the story. I didn’t miss out on the experience. It was a great book even though it wasn’t bound and printed.

Whenever I buy a book, I look through the stack of that particular title for the one in the best physical condition – no blemishes on the book cover, no visible dent marks, no bent pages, no pages with lighter printing than other pages, etc. The truth is, nearly ever book I’ve ever purchased has a blemish somewhere. I just don’t see it right away. Sometimes the binding breaks, sometimes the paper doesn’t feel right, sometimes the book doesn’t even smell like a book.

We like the notion of feel and smell, but in reality, neither offer a pure experience. In a sense, I’ve treated bound books like I do with a lot of things in life I over romanticize. Books are about information and/or entertainment. Information and entertainment happen as a result of the words in the book, not the packaging.

Since writing these words, I have purchased a Kindle. I’ve read two books on it and I have purchased and downloaded several more. It feels a lot like a book. I take it to bed with me at night and it’s just as easy to read, if not moreso, than a book book.

But the other day, I saw book in a bargain bin that caught my eye and I bought it. I don’t expect to ever stop buying book books for various reasons such as this.

In a way, this transition period feels like the 8-track/LP/cassette/CD transition that occurred when I was a kid. I’d just begin to accumulate music in one format and the next one would come along, which would require me to buy a machine that would play music in multiple formats.

You make the transition and deal with multiple formats because that is the age in which we live.

March Across America

Have you heard about the 2,500-mile “March Across America” that 12-year-old Zach Bonner started yesterday? He’s walking from Florida to Los Angeles in 12-15 mile increments, stopping along the way in churches, homeless shelters, and other community centers, to address the issues of homeless children.

 

“‘March Across America,’ I hope, will give voice to the millions of kids that do not have one,” Zach said before he left yesterday.

It should take him 178 days to walk across the country. An RV dealership is allowing Bonner and his mother to borrow an RV for their journey. And the Office Depot Foundation is donating one backpack for every mile Bonner walks.

This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. He handed out water and supplies to neighbors when he was 6 to hurricane victims. He walked 1,225 miles for the homeless in 2007. And last year, he completed a walk from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., where he met with senators and representatives. You can read more about his story here.

As I read Bonner’s story, I couldn’t help but think he has a better understanding of compassion than many adults do. Compassion isn’t demanding that somebody else needs to spend his or her money, or energy, or time. Instead, it’s doing something yourself and maybe even inspiring others to get involved.

What Did Life Look Like in the 00s?

In 20 years, if a young person asks you to give him or her a picture of what life looked like in America during the first decade of this century, what will you say?

I've been thinking about that question the past couple of days. All of us would answer that question differently. I probably won't have a definitive answer for five or ten years, because time brings perspective, but I'd make a list that looks like this if I had to answer the question today: 

911

Everyone who was alive when Islamic terrorists attacked our country will remember the morning of September 11, 2001. I wrote about my memories here. By the time Americans went to bed that evening, we knew life was going to be different in our country.

We woke up the next day to increased security, a temporary sense of unity, and a deep desire to strike back. American pride filled the streets, and workplace, and worship centers. Nobody cared about political party affiliation, race or religious beliefs. Instead, we saw each other as fellow humans in need. It was an awful time and it was a grand time.

Cell Phones

My dad's car blew an engine in 1997 on his way from St. Louis to Omaha to visit my family. He didn't have a cell phone. It was cold out and he sat in his freezing car in a farmer's field for several hours until the farmer came to his rescue and allowed Dad to use his phone. Dad called me and I drove two hours to pick him up. I made a decision that day to buy a cell phone. All the phone did was make phone calls because that's all cell phones did back then, but that was good enough.

By the middle of the 00s, cell phones took photos, sent text messages, recorded voice memos, played digital music, and had instant messenger features. By the late 00s, people who used social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter could update their status on their cell phone.

As is often the case with new technology, new dangers arose. Teens began sexting and drivers became distracted as they fidgeted with their phones. New laws resulted and we adapted.

[NEW YORK - JULY 18 [2007]: Eric Duberice (L) and Will Ozier talk on their cell phones in front of the New York Public Library after walking away from the steam pipe explosion that occurred during rush hour in midtown Manhattan July 18, 2007 in New York City. Steam and mud were forced from the ground near Grand Central Station on East 41st street from Third to Lexington Avenue forcing people to evacuate the area and also causing subway delays. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images) Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved.]

As the decade came to a close, some people dropped their land lines and switched solely to cell phones. Life without a cell phone became nearly unimaginable and people in all age demographics used them, including children. In fact, in one community it was estimated that as many as 45% of homeless people had a cell phone.

The Internet

Somewhere around 1993, I decided I wanted a computer. I had writing aspirations and I knew it was time to transition from electric typewriter to computer so I called a relative who was into computers and asked him if he knew of any good deals. He pointed me to a friend of his who was selling a computer that ran on DOS for $250.00. I bought it and was thrilled with it.

I eventually upgraded to a windows based machine and got online via AOL in 1994. Throughout the 90s, if you were online, you were probably considered a geek. By the end of the 00s, the geek stigma was gone.

The concept of internet dating was popularized by the movie You've Got Mail. At first the practice of internet dating was shunned, but by the end of the decade, if this website is to be believed, 12 couples per day either get married or engaged through Match.com and 118 couples per day get married or engaged through eHarmony.com.

The internet revolutionized the way we connected with one another, read the news, did research, and published our ideas.

Newspapers that had been around for decades began to fold because they couldn't compete with news websites that offered news for free. The internet created a mindset in Americans that believed content should be free. It could be paid for with advertising or product sales but not subscription fees. As the decade came to a close, old school style of journalism was giving way to the new school, but finding funding was still a challenge.

The internet changed the way many people listened to and purchased music. As the decade started, compact disks were king. Along came music in digital format, called MP3, allowing music lovers to download their favorite music and carry their entire music collection on an MP3 player in their pocket.

YouTube was founded in 2005 and much like the internet opened up the world for writers, YouTube opened up the world for anybody with a digital camera or camcorder. Companies jumped in and began featuring their products. Creative types began filming new mini-series. YouTube eventually led to Hulu, a website that broadcasts entire television shows and movies for free (if you'll watch a few advertisements).

During the 00s, the internet brought us entertainment on demand.

E-mail

Before e-mail came along, I was a huge letter writer. My dad and I exchanged letters often and there's still nothing like receiving a letter that you can pull out of the envelope and see the actual handwriting of a loved one or friend. You can feel the indentations in the paper and know that they were caused by the writer.

E-mail killed the letter and that sort of bums me out. But at the same time, I love being able to send and receive messages instantly. I only wish I would have done a better job of preserving the e-mail I received early on. So much of it was lost as computers crashed (I used e-mail software applications) or e-mail addresses changed. I eventually switched to webmail, even though I despise it, because I always have access to my archives.

By the end of the 00s, you could see a clear split between the way generations used or didn't use e-mail. Older generations embraced e-mail as a primary way to communicate online. Younger generations shunned e-mail in favor of text messaging.

Blogs

Blogs became everything that personal websites hoped to be. I might be overstating this, time will tell, but when blogging became mainstream in the mid-00s, it felt like the modern day equivalent of Gutenberg's printing press. Much like the pamphleteers of old, communicators no longer had to submit their ideas to editors. They could create a blog and hit the "publish" button.

By the last of the 00s, some bloggers had audiences in the millions and they were making a living from what they wrote and published themselves. By 2008, there were some 200 million blogs in existence with nearly one million posts going up on the internet every 24 hours. Anybody who believed he or she had something to say could start a blog and say it. By the end of the decade, nearly every major website had a blog presence.

Ironically, many bloggers received book deals after their blogs gained high readership numbers. 

Social Networking

Social networking started out as activity that young people used to keep in touch with each other. MySpace was founded in 2003 and it quickly allowed people to become online "friends." Other social networking sites soon followed.

Facebook was founded in 2004. Mostly college students used it, but by the end of the decade, every age demographic was represented and 250 million people were on Facebook.

Twitter was founded in 2006 and by the end of the decade it became one of the ways people discovered and disseminated news. Whenever a tragedy struck or whenever a big story broke, firsthand accounts could be read on Twitter.

The use of social networking evolved throughout the decade. Social networking was used by businesses, celebrities, social clubs, journalists, and the average Joe. Some used it to report news. Some used it to read news. Some used to it promote a product. Some used it to promote a cause. And some used it to create a community of like minded people.

In some ways, social networking made the world feel like a smaller place.

Digital Cameras

Film became unnecessary in the 00s. As digital cameras took off in popularity and as memory cards decreased in price, a family could take as many as a thousand pictures on vacation and never have to worry about running out of space. They could also view and delete any photos that weren't keepers. And they could upload them on services like Flickr, Snapfish or PhotoBucket for other loved ones to see before they even returned home from vacation.

By the end of the decade, many, if not most, cell phones had built in digital cameras which made nearly every event in a person's life one that could easily be recorded through the magic of photography.

Celebrity Fascination

As technology advanced throughout the 00s, it led to websites and blogs dedicated to celebrity gossip. Such sites developed their own reporters and photographers and by the end of the decade they were breaking news. This fed America's fascination with celebrities. Every time a celebrity made a move in public (and sometimes in private), it was captured on video or still photography and broadcast to the masses. A few celebrities seemed to embrace this; most did not.

This is just a small sampling of what life was like in the 00s from my perspective. I'd love to hear your take.

The Benefits of Coffee

Over the weekend Parade magazine ran a story about the six ways coffee can keep us healthy. Here they are:

1. Ease your headache pain.
2. Fight prostrate cancer.
3. Enhance your physical endurance.
4. Keep your mind going and going . . .
5. Lower your risk of Parkinson's.
6. Ease an asthma attack.

You can read more in depth about each way on Parade's website.

It's cool to hear about all the health benefits of coffee, especially since I drink several cups every day and one or two on the weekends at various coffee shops.

For me, one of the biggest benefits has more to do with relational health.

"Grabbing a cup of coffee" with a friend, or even a date, has become a social event in our culture. It's now considered to be "doing something."

In reality, it might be better than doing something because it means you almost have to converse with the person or people on the other side of the table.

[Every Wednesday night Pete, right, and Patty Mueller, pictured September 9, 2009, walk to Bakers Square in Chicago, Illinois, for Date Night where they enjoy a cup of coffee, a slice of pie, and some alone time for themselves. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune/MCT) Photo via Newscom. Content © 2009 Newscom All rights reserved.]

Nearly every time I meet friends for coffee, I learn something new about them. Sometimes it is the smallest of things: preferences, desires, little facts about their history, etc.

At the very least, I always get caught up with events in their lives.

I love that.

Final Survivor of Titanic Dies

Did you see that the last survivor of the Titanic died over the weekend? Her name was Millvina Dean; she was 97. I read the AP article about her with interest—not just because she is tied to such a huge historical event, but because of the lasting effects it had on her family.

Her family boarded the Titanic with the intention of starting a tobacconist shop in Wichita (or Kansas City—depending on which source you read). Her father owned a pub in England and he sold it to open the shop, but he perished some time after lowering Millvina, who was just two months old at the time, into a lifeboat. Her two-year-old brother and their mother also survived. They were taken to New York initially and then ended up going back to England.

Millvina never married, and of course, her family never opened that tobacconist shop in Kansas City. She went on to become a secretary. She died in Southampton, England—the same place her family left to start a new life in America.

The Dean family hadn’t planned on being on the Titanic. A coal strike caused them to transfer from another boat to the Titanic.

I wonder if Millvina spent a lot of time wondering about what might have been? Would she have gotten married and had children? Would she have ended up owning and running the shop her father would have started? How would her life in general have been different in Kansas?

I think anybody would wonder such things from time to time, but from that way it sounds, Millvina settled into life in Southampton. And it seems to have suited her just fine.

Connie Culp

Connie Culp is brave for so many reasons. If you haven’t already seen this, watch it:

Man Drops Engagement Ring Off Brooklyn Bridge

This looks like something that would happen to me: