Does It Compute?

In a comment following his article on meeting Russell Kirsch, Joel Runyon wrote:

I need to work on my patience with them a bit, but when I do, I find older generations have a ton of wisdom to share.

What Kirsch shared, along with a great deal of history, was a bit of wisdom:

“That’s the problem with a lot of people”, he continued, “they don’t try to do stuff that’s never been done before, so they never do anything, but if they try to do it, they find out there’s lots of things they can do that have never been done before.”

I can understand the impatience of younger generations who are on their way to create their own niche in the world, but Joel’s right – there is a ton of wisdom to be shared.

When my son was explaining how he had to live his own life, that he had to make his own mistakes, I wondered aloud if he really had to make them all or could he learn from others. It was not a complaint to keep him from experimenting with the new, but an encouragement for him to use maps others made showing where they met dead ends. It is not necessary to wander in the wilderness.

Sometimes it is necessary to go (boldly, or not) where others have not gone before. I like Kirsch’s comment in the article about God. Only he and God believed what could be done.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 KJV)

What Kirsch achieved impacted the track of computing, which has impacted the lives of everyone on this planet. OK, so I can’t back up that statement, but it sure did ours simply because I’m writing this and you’re reading it.

Do be patient with the elderly. Listen to their experiences, then inspect the solidity of foundations they’ve built.  Those with Christ in their hearts should be following some instructions from His inspired writer:

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, (Titus 2:2-7 KJV)