New thoughts on the word “Old”

“Dude, your computer is ancient. That thing has to have come from the stone-age.”

In the modern word, “Old” means bad.  “Old” has connotations of “outdated,” “outmoded,” “irrelevant,” “inefficient,” “inferior,” and so forth. 

“New,” on the other hand, seems to mean “better,” “relevant,” “effective,” bigger, better, faster, stronger. Newer computers, cell-phones, games and etc. are better than older ones. But does that apply to ideas as well? Often we (modern people) think so.  “Cutting edge solutions” and the like.

But is that really the case?

A hundred years ago (and even more recently than that) the word “old” wasn’t a bad thing.  “Old” also meant “tried and tested,” “reliable,” “mature,” and “refined” (think of fine wines and cheeses). “New” was just the opposite. “Untried,” “risky,” etc.  

I think this is very interesting. New ideas are not always better than old ones. (If you even believe in new ideas, most “discoveries” in politics and philosophy have been around for millennia.) "Nihil novi."

Just a quick thought.  Listen when old people talk.  You stand a good chance of learning something valuable.  Don’t throw out old ideas just because they are old. Some things don’t get outdated.

The Gift of Distraction

When I was a missionary in the Netherlands and Belgium it boggled my mind that so many people had never once stopped to wonder about the big questions.  Who are we? Who am I? What is the point of all this? Where did it come from? Why?

These questions are of critical importance to everything we do in life.  It is critical to know what is worth pursuing and what our long term goals should be when deciding what direction to take in life.  But people don’t live that way. 

How often have you sat still and wondered about your place in the universe? Or pondered the dark, and somewhat awkward, question of the meaning of life? Is there anything after this life?  Does being alive even mean anything? How do I even know that I am alive? Perhaps it was in the moment when you were away from the city lights and saw the night sky full of stars.  In quiet moments when you felt empty and alone.  Maybe when choosing a college major or making some other life changing decision.

However, most of the time, we don’t think about it.  We worry about the tasks of the day, we watch TV, we get distracted, and we distract ourselves.

After years of tearing my hair out over this observation, I think distratction might be a good thing in moderation.

This is why.

Before setting out on a journey, it is important to know the goal.  “Begin with the End in mind” as the saying goes.  Without the big picture none of the smaller steps have any meaning or direction and nothing can be achieved except by accident or dumb luck. Understanding long term goals can be critical to one’s happiness and success.  The trouble with that is this.  What bigger goal is my big goal working toward? The scale can always increase to a larger plain.

This is a problem.  If you wait until you have the journey completely planned, “with the end in mind,” you will never start walking, and you will get absolutely nowhere.  This is the paradox of beginning with the end in mind. 

The beauty of the big questions is in their relevance and monumental importance.  The trouble with them is that they do not always have answers.  There will always be things (sometimes answers monumentally important things) that we will not know.  What makes something good?  Why are wrong things wrong? Good luck trying to figure that one out.

Our entire lives are a balance between the powers of reason and distraction.  Reason asks the questions, and if left alone with them, drives itself insane asking them. Distraction doesn’t bother with the questions, ignoring them entirely, and living on assumptions and dogmas.  Clearly, there is danger in each of these.  The danger of obscurity and an infinite regress on the one side, and of ignorance and dogma on the other. 

Reason helps us to question our beliefs and to trim away false ones so that the truth may thrive.  But like a set of overzealous pruning shears, reason alone continues to cut away at beliefs until none remain.  The entire branch of philosophy called Epistemology is dedicated to correcting this problem, and so far, there has not been any progress. Reason cannot even prove that there is a real world outside my head (think Matrix), let alone what that world is like.

Thus the need for distraction. And an even greater need for faith.  At some point, we need to be able to step back from the questions to live our lives.  This does not mean abandoning critical thinking and living in ignorance.  It simply means being able and willing to admit ignorance and keep living anyway. 

Gratitude Follow Up

The week after my last post on gratitude was incredible.  I found a few small ways to serve (mostly my wife and a friend who needed some help), and at the end of the week I was asked to give a talk in Church on service.  It was an interesting experience to think about, and try to practice, gratitude and service in a concentrated way. What I learned was to serve where I am.  There are plenty of opportunities here and now without rushing off to “somewhere else” to do service.