What's in your capsule?

With the recent discovery of a time capsule in the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, I'm feeling a little nostalgic and inspired. Why? See, the owner of the Gardens took a handmade copper box, filled it and hid it in a cornerstone wall back in 1931. A well guarded secret, Smythe took it to the grave with him. Eighty years later, as the Gardens undergoes a transformation, a worker accidentally stumbles on this piece of history. News spread quickly and many couldn't help but feel curious. What on earth could this box contain? At a time when the world was deep in a depression, what relics could capture the essence of that time?  The box was opened and inside were newspapers and booklets, reflecting the establishment, city and what was happening on the day the box was buried.  Kind of things you would expect to find.  What has everyone stumped is a small ivory elephant. Yes you read correctly. This item is what has caught everyone's interest.  Why? What does it mean? Is there some message? The public turns to the Smythe family hoping to get answers, but you know what? They haven't a clue.  They are speculating just like the rest of us.

People have been making time capsules for thousands of years just in different forms. From the Egyptians preparing tombs, kings or wealthy merchants burying documents and momentos, to someone who wants to preserve information for generations to come,  The most notable is the Crypt of Civilization which contains countless items that depict this era. I think it is a really neat thing to have the privilege to open a time capsule.  To have an opportunity to get a glimpse of a time through someone's eyes. What they chose to tell their story.  Because that's what it is, a story.  Now, this particular time capsule appears to be more a means of maintaining historical accuracy, just in case, documents or newspapers were not preserved. The ivory elephant though is a personal message.  Unfortunate, that it was not accompanied by a note. Maybe it was meant to inspire conversation. I guess we'll never know.
Time capsules to me, are snapshots of life. What we treasured, feared, dreamed, achieved...If I were to prepare a time capsule, I would put in photo's from each year of my life all inscribed with details of the year, events and people both on a personal and global perspective. Then I would carefully select items like a piece of jewellery passed down from generations, a worn out piece of clothing, a book, lock of hair, something I made or wore every day.  And as much as we are all in the technology today, everything would have handwritten notes. Each item, each note, weaving a tale; a chapter in the long line of human history.

We take for granted that all the information of our generation will be there, in abundance, for future generations. But things happen and stuff gets destroyed, lost or forgotten. As far back as humans walked the earth, when they recognized their mortality, I believe they tried to find ways to tell their story for their children, grandchildren and so on. Markings on walls, wood or stone that could validate one's existence. As the years pass, things have become more sophisticated. Containers of all shapes, sizes and materials designed to hold those items that reveal who we were and what our lives were like. Regardless of whether it is a picture etched on a cave wall or a copper box, the goal is the same, to leave the intangible key to our minds and hearts.

So think you might want to have your own time capsule? Don't think too long. Time has a way of slipping by, memories blur and before you know it, you have no more time.

Character defining moments

A week ago the Costa Concordia ran aground near Giglio, Italy...human error was the cause. Since then we have been bombarded with images of this magestic vessel capsized, rescue efforts and survivor accounts.  If you haven't been keeping up, simply google it and you will find all angles have been covered. What I want to focus on though is what surfaced during and after this unfortunate accident.

Before I do, I can't help but think about the Titanic. In a time and place sans the technology of today, we have only glimpses (from survivors) of what happened. Great minds hunger to know who, what, why, when and how, and have tried to reconstruct that fateful day. As technology has evolved they have figured out how to get down to the wreakage, so expeditions were given the challenge of getting answers.  Every angle has been exhausted. Then there's the movie Titanic which brings us on board to get a taste of what everyone on that ship experienced.

With the thoughts of Titanic both real and fictional floating around, there are many parallels we can draw. But what has my interest is when tragedy struck and the wave of panic rippled through the ship, how did people react? If I were on the ship, knowing myself as well as I do, I would be beside myself. Kind of like the person you need to slap silly to get them to think straight. But that's just me.  From a comedic point of view, the Seinfeld show demonstrated another kind of reaction; the episode where George panics at a children's party when a small fire breaks out and he pushes the children, elderly and clown aside to save himself. Need I say more? The range of reactions is as wide as it is deep.
Now the many armchair critics out there will spout how they would bring order, perform heroic deeds and save the day. Maybe they could. Maybe they would. Maybe they see it all too easily done on the big screen and assume life will play out like a script.  Not quite.

Back to the Costa Concordia.  Seems the many accounts of what happened paints many pictures. Confusion, fear and lack of leadership became the cocktail for chaos. Today, for all the survivors with their feet planted on solid ground, they have a chance to reflect on what they did or did not do. Selective memory may come into play, but reality is, how one reacted may not have necessarily been how one imagined. Does it make one a good person or a bad person. Easy to judge. Not so easy to live through.
So, what's my point?  Until you are thrown into a situation, how you face it will come from a place that may be unfamiliar territory. Regardless, it will be a character defining moment.

As Bishop Westcott said, "Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men."

The face of poverty

Poverty discriminates against no one. It rides on the coat tails of every tragedy and hardship. When we peel away the many layers, the depth of poverty is staggering.  From those who are barely making ends meet to third world conditions, poverty has reached epidemic proportions. Its crept into every culture and corner of the planet. Money is thrown into its bottomless pit trying to fix it but there are too many hands reaching out and not enough to go around.  The stretch of poverty is as short as your neighbourhood to as far as across the world.  Hunger, homelessness, natural disasters, disease and war rear their ugly heads at a rate that has become near impossible to remedy.  And the images of the aftermath are often too much to bear.

It's a sad state we are in.

Sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack, I can't help but feel helpless. Everywhere you look poverty has made a home and looms like a dark cloud. Hard economic times, a seemingly high incidence of natural disasters, inconquerable diseases and conflicts continue to infiltrate human existence. Many people have experienced some level of poverty; even more are born and die in its grip.

Frustration continues to mount because leaders don't know how to lead, and the mentality of "every man for himself" has become the norm. It's driving people to rise up and demand change.  At the core of it all is desperation and fear.  Think I am embellishing it?  I regress; I haven't even scratched the surface.

I know that the face of poverty is multifaceted.
It's the children that go to school with empty stomachs.
It's elderly people living on fixed incomes who barely make enough to live.
It's families losing their homes because they have lost jobs.
It's our native people whose land has been exploited forcing them to live in appalling conditions.
It's people under leaderships that keep them impoverished.
It's neverending conflicts that consume everything and leave little for people to live.
It's people whose lands are barren offering no means to survive.
It's the wrath of mother nature that sweeps through lands and in its wake years of rebuilding.

The scales have tipped and if change doesn't happen ... well, the results will be devastating.

Not a pretty picture eh?  Can't really sugar coat it. I am only one, but I hold on to hope.  I invite you to reflect on these words.  I believe the change is within each of us.

 “When the demands of life seem unfair to you, when you are exhausted and have to pull yourself out of bed yet another time to do some act of service, do it gladly, without counting the cost and without self-pity, for if you persevere in serving others, in giving yourself to the poor, if you persevere to the point of completely spending yourself, perhaps someday the poor will find it in their hearts to forgive you. For it is more blessed to give than to receive and it is also a lot easier.” ~ St. Vincent de Paul

Social Media Playground

It's been interesting to watch how social media has played out over the last few years. There hasn't been a time that we have been so connected globally, as we are today. Regardless of what time zone the internet never sleeps. I use several of the social media tools for my business, Harry Purple Monkey www.harrypurplemonkey.com ; if you want any shot at success, you have to be in thick of it all. What I find intriguing is how it has magnified certain human behaviour. If I may use an analogy, I would say the internet is a massive virtual playground. There's the playing field, jungle gym, basketball nets, chalked areas for hopscotch, marbles, dodge ball, sandbox and wide open spaces for tag, jumping rope or just walking around.We have an assortment of personalities; the big players, interest groups, cliques, wannabe's, bullies, not to mention the observers who have little to no interest in mingling on the playground. To oversee the activities, we have those in authority who are expected to maintain order.You've probably caught on where I am going with this.  Whether on the reality or virtual playground, everyone has a role, now though, there's just a bigger audience watching.

Let's have a quick look around. There's Facebook.  How many friends and likes do you have? Then there's Twitter. How many followers, Retweets and Mentions do you have?  Let's not forget Youtube. How many hits did you get? We mustn't leave out Flickr, Digg, Stumbleupon, Metacafe, Scribd, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Klout, Kred, Blogs ... and the list goes on. We post messages, ideas, photos and videos,we share experiences and insights and we wait for comments and reactions.  Back to the playground analogy; so the big players are those with the longest friend list or following; everyone waits with bated breath to reply, comment, mention or retweet, hoping to get their attention. The interest groups are a little more selective and engage with like people. The cliques just post or tweet, never interacting with others except a select few. The wannabe's do everything possible to shock and attract attention. The bullies stir trouble. The observers just follow the status quo but rarely participate. The monitors try to maintain semblance of order, banning or suspending users who don't play by the rules. So there we have it, a fully operational playground. Expectations are basic; respect, share, be kind and help others.

Everyday we step into the virtual playground and do our thing. The din of tweets, facebook posts, youtube uploads, flickrs, diggs, stumbles ... resonates. Sometimes so loudly that it all becomes an unrecognizable hum. So much so that one has to ask if anyone is really paying attention?  In the twitterverse, as I watch the timeline fill I am reminded of the birds on a wire and how they go about chirping above each other almost like they are trying to see who can be the loudest..who will get noticed. On facebook, there is a mixed bag of things happening; celebrating, laughing, grieving, sharing photo's and videos; getting a like, comment..getting noticed. Youtube, well, this is a whole different beast; a place to expose what at one time could only be relayed by word of mouth. Word of mouth, now that's an interesting phrase.  How much of that do we do today? Picking up the phone, meeting face to face, engaging people in public places. No much easier to send a text, tweet, share. Still it's okay, we feel like we are a part of something.  On the darker side, we are also vulnerable to being targetted and embarrassed; sadly that has led to tragic endings.

Now don't get me wrong, these social tools, when used correctly, do connect people, globally. What I see though is that we just skim the surface and rob ourselves of real (not virtual) contact.  But we don't want to be left out, so we play nice in the sandbox (well most of us that is). If I were to offer a suggestion, that would be to do the tweeting, sharing, uploading and texting in moderation and don't forget to notice those that are standing or sitting in front of you.