Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Killing Time
I was walking through the aisles of the grocery store the other morning and heard one employee say to another that they did something the other night and referred to it as just "killing time".
I suddenly had thoughts about that phrase that I've never had before and the more I thought about it, the more I felt that it might be a good blog idea, and some good inspiration (for me if for no one else) heading into the new year.
To start with killing is, at least generally speaking, a pretty negative term. It has associated with it the idea of waste—as in the waste of a life cut short when someone is killed by a drunk driver. I realize that "killing time" can also be used to describe something positive—"I had some time to kill so I folded some laundry"—that sort of thing, however for the sake of this topic that's not what I'm referring to.
We can all think of times (if you're like me probably today) when we can look back and see time that we have truly killed in the wasted sense of the word. I for one think that if I only have a few minutes available, I might as well look at the weather online again or something just as useless, when in fact I could take care of the dishes on the counter, empty the dishwasher, or any number of other things that really don't take all that long.
Another thought I had relates to how much time do we spend with thoughts, attitudes, words, actions, etc, that are negative and unproductive in our relationships, our reactions to situations or events—just stuff in general. For the sake of this entry, I'm thinking that we could refer to the time spent in that state as "killing time". Time which could be spent uplifting, hoping, loving, encouraging, etc, is instead being spent "killing" with actions and attitudes that are opposites of what I listed. Which brings me to the phrase I would like to replace "killing time" with—(drum roll please).
"LIVING TIME"! Pretty clever huh? Came up with that all by myself.
Just to clarify, in reference to actual use of time, while "killing" to "living" can certainly apply to unproductive to productive (an area I need work) it doesn't specifically need to be related to accomplishment (at least in the "I got this done" realm). One example could be: instead of watching more youtube videos that are completely unrelated to what I was looking at in the first place, I could play with my kids. All it takes is a five minute pillow fight and I've gone from "killing" to "living." Just this evening I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas with my youngest daughter snuggled in my lap—stroking her hair. I got "nothing" done, but that was really living! The examples that could be used here are pretty endless so I'll let you come up with your own.
In reference to the thoughts, attitudes etc. I'm not going to give specific examples, but instead point out what I think is a good guide line for living in a "living" and not "killing" way. Galatians 5:22-23 says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." That's a sure recipe for making anytime "living time" instead of "killing time".
I know myself well enough to not make new years resolutions, however I am making a list of things I want to do more and less of in 2009 which, if I look at it regularly, (my plan) will hopefully, help me to do more "living" and less "killing".
More: love my wife and kids, read, eat vegetables and so on.
Less: hurt my wife and kids, frivolous computer time, eat sugared cereal and so on.
MC said it was hammer time—I say it's "LIVING TIME" and I invite you to join me on a journey to fill 2009 with more living than ever.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Command–Z or Me and My Moron Chip
On my Mac, in just about every application, "command–z" is the keyboard shortcut for undo. If you're on a PC running windows, it's "control–z". When you use the undo command on a computer, its as if the previous action never happened. As one who's done a fair amount of video editing, photo editing, page layout, and word processing for my promotional materials, I've used "command–z" a lot.
I recently read an article that used the computer "undo" as a metaphor for something,
(I don't remember what)... and that got me thinking how nice it would be to have a "command–z" for life, specifically the things that we say. How many times have we said something that we wish we could take back, or undo. Of course we try... We've all heard the expression at some point in our lives "I take that back" or "I was just kidding". But I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who said "Take it back? You can't take it back! It's already out there!" Of course there is apologies and forgiveness and we should all be doing more of those, especially the apologies. However, since there is no shortcut to simply "undo" what we've said, it would of course be much easier to simply "not-do" in the first place.
And that brings us to the moron chip. Radio talk show host Joe Souchery coined the term "moron chip". The moron chip, as I understand it, is that little chip in your brain that kicks in and says "Hey moron! That's really stupid idea, don't do that!" or "Hey moron! That's a really dumb thing to say, keep your mouth shut!" Or, as is not often enough the case with me, (just ask my kids) "Hey moron! That's not going to be funny, don't even try!" So when you have what Joe calls a "moron chip problem" that's when the chip doesn't kick-in and stop you from doing what you shouldn't do or say.
If your married, most of your moron chip failures probably happen in interaction with your spouse (especially if your a husband). Here is an example of my chip failing yesterday. My wife was going to make a chicken and rice casserole that my daughter had requested for lunch. I mentioned there was a couple of chicken breasts and she could use the bigger one and save me the other. The ones I was referring to were in the fridge but I had not made that clear. Shortly after telling her, I walked into the kitchen where my wife had two bags of chicken breasts (I buy them at Sam's Club and then freeze them two to a bag) thawing in a bucket of water. My mind said "I meant the thawed chicken not the frozen! and two bags!That's four chicken breasts! You only need one for a small casserole for lunch.". At the same time I said "Thats a lot..." And stopped—but it was to late. I may as well have spewed out the whole thing because she knew exactly what I meant. I apologized right away which she appreciated but the damage was done.
It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized exactly what was going on. She wasn't thawing it all out for her. One bag was for me and one was for her. She was doing exactly what she had heard me tell her to do. Use the bigger and save me other. Because I wasn't clear about it being in the fridge she took it out of the freezer (99% of the time that's where using chicken would start) and was taking care of one for me so that it would be ready when I needed it. So consequently to he,r it came across as "You dummy what are you doing using that much chicken don't you know better".If my moron chip kicked in properly, I would have realized that she never puts that much chicken in a casserole, so obviously it's not all for that purpose, and therefor some of it must be for something else, and since I said I needed some, it must be for me, and I didn't get across clearly that there was chicken in the fridge, so moron just say thank you for thawing the chicken and move on. Needless to say I went and apologized again.
To go back from the moron chip to the computer chip. If we did our word processing, video editing, or whatever, without ever or rarely needing to use our undo shortcut, imagine how much smoother, easier, and less frustrating that task would be. Not to mention the savings in time and mental energy. If we apply that same line of thinking to the things we say, where our moron chip is functioning properly and we didn't feel the need to command-z our tongues so often, our relationships, and thus our lives, would also go along smoother, easier, with less frustration, and save us the time and energy, that goes into the repair work, of apologizing and forgiving.
So for the sake of my wife and kids, say a prayer for me (add yourself to the list while your at it) and the proper functioning of my moron chip: no short circuits, no bad wiring, and frequent upgrades to a bigger, better, more powerful chip. As this is one chip that will never become outdated, obsolete, or to powerful.
I recently read an article that used the computer "undo" as a metaphor for something,
(I don't remember what)... and that got me thinking how nice it would be to have a "command–z" for life, specifically the things that we say. How many times have we said something that we wish we could take back, or undo. Of course we try... We've all heard the expression at some point in our lives "I take that back" or "I was just kidding". But I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who said "Take it back? You can't take it back! It's already out there!" Of course there is apologies and forgiveness and we should all be doing more of those, especially the apologies. However, since there is no shortcut to simply "undo" what we've said, it would of course be much easier to simply "not-do" in the first place.
And that brings us to the moron chip. Radio talk show host Joe Souchery coined the term "moron chip". The moron chip, as I understand it, is that little chip in your brain that kicks in and says "Hey moron! That's really stupid idea, don't do that!" or "Hey moron! That's a really dumb thing to say, keep your mouth shut!" Or, as is not often enough the case with me, (just ask my kids) "Hey moron! That's not going to be funny, don't even try!" So when you have what Joe calls a "moron chip problem" that's when the chip doesn't kick-in and stop you from doing what you shouldn't do or say.
If your married, most of your moron chip failures probably happen in interaction with your spouse (especially if your a husband). Here is an example of my chip failing yesterday. My wife was going to make a chicken and rice casserole that my daughter had requested for lunch. I mentioned there was a couple of chicken breasts and she could use the bigger one and save me the other. The ones I was referring to were in the fridge but I had not made that clear. Shortly after telling her, I walked into the kitchen where my wife had two bags of chicken breasts (I buy them at Sam's Club and then freeze them two to a bag) thawing in a bucket of water. My mind said "I meant the thawed chicken not the frozen! and two bags!That's four chicken breasts! You only need one for a small casserole for lunch.". At the same time I said "Thats a lot..." And stopped—but it was to late. I may as well have spewed out the whole thing because she knew exactly what I meant. I apologized right away which she appreciated but the damage was done.
It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized exactly what was going on. She wasn't thawing it all out for her. One bag was for me and one was for her. She was doing exactly what she had heard me tell her to do. Use the bigger and save me other. Because I wasn't clear about it being in the fridge she took it out of the freezer (99% of the time that's where using chicken would start) and was taking care of one for me so that it would be ready when I needed it. So consequently to he,r it came across as "You dummy what are you doing using that much chicken don't you know better".If my moron chip kicked in properly, I would have realized that she never puts that much chicken in a casserole, so obviously it's not all for that purpose, and therefor some of it must be for something else, and since I said I needed some, it must be for me, and I didn't get across clearly that there was chicken in the fridge, so moron just say thank you for thawing the chicken and move on. Needless to say I went and apologized again.
To go back from the moron chip to the computer chip. If we did our word processing, video editing, or whatever, without ever or rarely needing to use our undo shortcut, imagine how much smoother, easier, and less frustrating that task would be. Not to mention the savings in time and mental energy. If we apply that same line of thinking to the things we say, where our moron chip is functioning properly and we didn't feel the need to command-z our tongues so often, our relationships, and thus our lives, would also go along smoother, easier, with less frustration, and save us the time and energy, that goes into the repair work, of apologizing and forgiving.
So for the sake of my wife and kids, say a prayer for me (add yourself to the list while your at it) and the proper functioning of my moron chip: no short circuits, no bad wiring, and frequent upgrades to a bigger, better, more powerful chip. As this is one chip that will never become outdated, obsolete, or to powerful.
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