Lenten Blogging: Day Twelve
Today's Thought: "You've been asked to a five-minute presentation to a group of young schoolchildren on the topic of your choice. Describe your presentation."
In many mainline churches we have a segment of the service known as "The Children's Moment." This is a time when the kids come to the front and are given a very short sermon. If you ask me it should be known as the reason we don't get out of church 5-minutes earlier. They normally sit there staring at you as if you're an alien or something. So if given the choice I wouldn't do any presentation, I'd send them off to someone who can stand them.
But, for the sake of the question, if forced to give a presentation I would make it be about treasure hunting. What kid doesn't like treasure? But just when they thought I'd be going all Jake and the Neverland Pirates on them, I'd begin talking about the value of treasuring information.
It's at this point the alien stare will begin.
Do you remember growing up and having to do a report (I'm speaking to those of you who graduated from high school before 2001)? You would go to a library, head to the encyclopedia sections, search for the section you need like you're at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, then you'd pick your book and search, once again, for the section you need before finally locating your information.
God forbid you find an insufficient amount of info, because then you'd have to repeat the process again and again until satisfaction.
The process can be arduous but something happens as you hunt. That is, the information that was gathered through the search has stayed with you, and you can add it to a collection of insights that will one day come in handy.
The info becomes like a treasure.
Today, on the other hand, information is one google search away. It is acquired with such ease and comfort that it is scarcely ever regarded as a treasure. We say, "well I'll just google it," and thus refuse to actually learn. Therefore we begin to regard the information, that was once acquired through a tedious process, like we regard oxygen. Since it is easy to acquire and seemingly everywhere, we do not treasure it.
Little wonder many people rely on technology for EVERYTHING. Next time your at the store watch the person in front of you pull out there phone's calculator for simple math.
So I would tell the kids to value the information that is easily attained. I would tell them that although it is found with ease, it is still a treasure; and if they treat it as such it will pay off in innumerable ways.
But they'd just wonder what planet I'm from. And I'd feel like an idiot.
Tomorrow's thought: "Pick a contentious issue about which you care deeply - it could be the same sex marriage debate, or just a disagreement you're having with a friend. Write a post defending the opposite position, and then reflect on what it was like to do that."