After all these years I thought I had 1 hobby in the form of audio/music and John Williams.
I didn't know another thing I do could be considered a hobby: Essayist.
Close to 1000 entries online
Varying lengths and quality
Countless entries started in various forms of completion or abandonment
Ah yes - Les Miserables. The French novel published in 1862 by Victor Hugo. Later becoming a star studded, timeless and highly revered and praised musical production that is Les Mis (Miz). Cameron Mackintosh's smash hit and long running musical production telling the story through musical theatre launched in 1985. Hugo's story is timeless no matter how it's told. I remember the book being too long for a kid, emotionally stunted while lacking discipline to power through a work of epic proportions. Enchanted watching the musical struck a chord. Wonderful music filled with anthems you know; songs one quickly grows to love, leaving the theatre with a song in your heart.
What looks like just another Broadway musical is surprisingly complex and fascinating. It's a story intricately woven together through intertwined relationships over the course of 20 years. Told through music. The singing tells the story. Expresses the turmoil and tenderness of relationships as well as their complexity and complication. Sweeping instrumental interludes capturing the turmoil the characters and the grander society live during the French revolution. As a whole the work examines the human existence from nearly every imaginable perspective. Rich like wine with hints of nuanced emotion expressed through universal human struggle. The longing of meaningful existence through fulfilling relationships. Triumph while enduring humanity. Knowing others and self. Love. Revenge. Survival. Moral compromise driven by realizing unwanted hardship. Restoration through evolution and transformation. Secrets. Motivations. The conflict between good and bad. A surprisingly thorough examination of the human condition.
Examination applied in education through many disciplines. Music. Philosophy. History. Literature. Politics. Psychology. Sociology. I can imagine the excitement educators experience after reading each semester's papers written by students confronting all of it. Exploration commented with perception to demonstrate clarity in understanding. A triumph in intellectual exercise and pursuit.
The story entices me with a moral questions too strong to resist.
What committed crime lend themself to being dissolved into humanity?
Without enforcement and associated restitution to society. Side-stepped accountability.
Where does accountability reside?
When is debt to society finally forgiven?
Does society operate from personal conviction, moral code or agreed upon laws? Where laws an extension of rigorous debate or negotiated through compromise? Justice sits on the delicate balance of a scale. Is enforcement black and white in enforcement from Javert's standpoint? Or does enforcement exist in the grey space between the extremes. Balancing circumstance with motivation as in Jean Valjeans life? A judge is charged with the burden of reconciling conflict in the two extremes. Media somehow made all of us the jury without viewing evidence in the context and confine of law. Realize just like the extremes in color, humanity stands somewhere in nuanced negotiation of polar extreme. How does appropriate reconciliation happen in the struggle of context?
Jean Valjean broke a window pain and stole a loaf of bread because his family was starving and his sister's child was close to death.
Valjean knows the sacrifice of 19 years being imprisoned and inhumanely identified as number 24601 under Javert's purview. Jean Valjean's life ambitions put on hold while paying a penalty to society, disproportionate to the actions he took under duress.
Javert spends the rest of his life pursuing Jean Valjean with a vengeance assuming Valjean is a criminal for life because he committed a relatively minor infraction of the law. Javert used intimidation to motivate Jean Valjean to discourage further infractions. "Do not forget my name. Do not forget me prisoner 24601."
We are at an inflection point in the story when Jean ValJean is upset because after release from prison he feels slighted and penalized for actions taken 20 or so years ago. Fired from a new job on a farm because the blemish on his past is discovered. Jean Valjean is payed half of what the other men get for the same work.
Struggle continues due to the mark of Cain on his character. He makes his way to a church and a bishop offers Jean Valjean nourishment coming from a place of charity, 'what we have, we have to share.' Left alone Jean Valjean steals a chalice worth twice what he was paid working on the farm.
Jean Valjean is quickly returned to the church by law enforcement, for stealing the silver cup.
In a remarkable moment of compassion the bishop tells Jean Valjean he forgot the silver candlesticks playing it off as if the items in question were given by our Bishop. By the kindness extended, Jean Valjean vows to take the bishops advice be become an instrument of God in his life.
JeanValjean rights his life and becomes successful in business and for all intents and purposes extends his own act of kindness by supporting a child named Cosette, a woman named Fantine is no longer able to provide for. Valjean sees a parellel to his families earlier struggles. The concession provide by the bishop was a turning point.
While Jean Valjean demonstrates he paid back his debts tenfold while Javert continues vengeful pursuit for rest of the store.
How long until debts to society are repaid?
And again -
When do criminal acts regardless of motivation fade into humanity?
The answers aren't known. However, they are being negotiated in real time while controversy is stirred to affect an outcome based on volatile emotional reaction without the accompanying rigor of debate. Debate was simpler in more homogeneous less dense geographic space. Advances in and easy access to transportation across oceans and continents combined with a more population density creates heterogeneity. Lack of continuity in shared experience and priorities creates conflict. As population exponentially increases, debate and agreement become far less likely and demands more effort that most are willing to make. Therein lies the harmony of humanity falling short of potential. Differences exist but often difficult to integrate due to conflict. There's a puzzle with more pieces than anyone knows what to do with, but not because completion is impossible. Because collective understanding how they belong together requires more work than most are willing to undertake.
Costco sells a hotdog for $1.50.
The hotdog hangs over the bun.
It's obscene.
People don't know how to carry or eat these things.
They're not hotdogs. They're porndogs.
I don't know...People are literally and figuratively eating wieners.
That's a revisit to a post I wrote a short bit ago. I ran it through the framework I'm discovery with my editor. It brought home the joke I was trying to make but was only half baked.
The evolution of sharing intellectual pursuits has a interesting representation in Disney's Spaceship Earth in EPCOT. A constant motion ride highlighting the evolution of documenting and sharing pursuits ad labors of the mind. The real story as I see pivotal moments documented below.
God shared message to Moses
Moses chiseled message into stone tablets
Message shared verbally
Caveman created hieroglyphics by drawing on walls
MessaKetef Hinnon amulets - 600 BC / discovered 1979
A prehistoric silver metal scroll containing etchings of messages in Hebrew script. Worn on chain around neck to keep close to heart. Texas contained fragmented words and phrases from the book of Numbers 6:24-26 in The Bible pharaoh
Early forms of writing from ancient Egypt - Invented a primitive alphabet and semi-permanent drawing of symbols on an early form of paper manuscript known as papyrus rolled into a scroll. Primitive literacy and sharing by those who could read.
Writing instruments and tablets evolved and production began
Large populations of people learned to read and write
Paper was invented and Gutenberg created first moveable-type printing press. This evolved into publishing books and scale expanded. Publication techniques created a primitive media industry.
Industrial Revolution 18th and 19th century.
1800s - Acoustic tin can connected by tense string at the base of each can and an open side that acted as a primitive microphone and speaker. Term "Lovers Telephone" coined.
1829 - Typewriter invented in 1829.
1830s - Electrical telegraph emerged as a primitive iteration as the electrical telephone system.
1837 - Charles Babbage invents the first mechanical printer.
1840s -experimentation lead to point to point electrical telegraphy and laid the groundwork for the first telephone.
1868+ - Primitive keyboard invented by Christopher Latham Shole and Carlos Glidden. Evolved to the QWERTY layout still used today.
1868 - Consistent typewriters manufacturing production started?
1876 - Thomas Edison patented an electric pen and duplicating press. Alexander Graham Bell files a patent for a device that produced a clear replication of the human voice and became the first practical Telephone.
1885 - 1887 - Mimeograph machine / Edison Mimeograph patented and licensed to Albert Blake Dick
Editing was a laborious endeavor resulting in an editing, collaborations
20th century revolution in communication with the invention of telegraphs, radio, telephone and movies
1938 - Xerography technology invented in 1938 by Chester Carlson and evolved to a quick document and image copier
1957 - Dot matrix printer developed
1959 - Xerox machine introduced
1961 - IBM Selectric released electric typewriter. Evolved into the first available printer on mass scale
1964 - Electromechanical typewrite with magnetic tape storage - the first modern word processor created by IBM. Allowing documents to be saved and
1969 - Data Secretary invented by Evelyn Berezin and became computerized word processor automating typing and editing tasks. Compuserve was a the first large internet service provider providing primitive internet access through what became a modem. Chatrooms and Forums
1977 - Apple II computer invented by Steve Wozniak and brought to market by Steve Jobs and Apple Computer Company.
1978 - 300 Baud modem invented by Bell Labs allowing computers to be connected via phone lines and share information.
1979 -Early word process invented by Paul Lutus and released as Apple Writer by Apple Computer. WordPerfect was also invented to work on MS-DOS Machines
1980 - Displaywriter - the IBM 6580 was released as a micro computer based word processing machine with floppy disk drives, a 5MHZ processor. Epson released the MX-80 dot matrix printer.
1981 - Remote Bulletin Board System for Personal Computer (RBBS-PC) invented by Russell Lane. Originally built on CP/M and later ported to basic. Was copyrighted and released under limited license. Message bases and shared community platforms function like primitive chat rooms
1983 - Microsoft Word invented by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie. Ran on a UNIX system. FIDO Bulletin board system invented by Tom Jennings. Usenet featured moderated newsgroups under control of an individual or small group.
1984 - Mactintosh released by Apple Computer. A home computer capable of dynamic prints and fonts along with storage. HP released the first laser printer. Prodigy Communications Corporations was an online service operating until 2001. Led to eveolution of:
1988 - America Online (AOL) evolved and mainstreamed "internet access" with chatrooms and instant messaging.
1989- World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 leading to internet uses adoption and easier access to remote data
1994 - 2001 - A community formed where people created online journals and diaries. The term blog was coined.
1998 - Google launched by Larry Page and Sergey Brin creating a search engine. Became as ubiquitous as Kleenix was to the facial tissue.
1999 - Blogger was formed by Pyra Lab and America Online enabling users to easily publish online Blogs.
2003 - Google acquired blogger and Blogspot.com and mainstreamed online journals and diaries.
The rest is history.
Draft: There is a fine thread leading to the difference between brilliance and insanity. I have one foot planted firmly on each side.
Edit 1: There is a fine thread between brilliance and insanity. Some days I'm convinced I'm walking it. Other days I'm not sure whether I've crossed it.
Edit 2: There is a fine thread between brilliance and insanity. Some days I'm convinced I'm walking it. Other days I'm not sure whether I've crossed it.
Editing in collaboration with ChatGPT by OpenAI. I wrote the draft. I wrote the final. The collaboration with an editor was free and took 30 seconds.
I suggested the process be document. ChatGPT's response:
I think there's real value in that project.
Much of the public conversation about AI is polarized. One narrative says AI is a revolutionary creative partner; the other says it undermines originality and authorship. Neither fully captures what actually happens when someone uses it thoughtfully over time.
What's often missing is the lived process.
Your conversations have been less about asking AI for answers than about building a disciplined method of inquiry. Over time, you've experimented with questions such as:
Those are implementation questions. They're about practice, not theory.
I also think transparency will matter. If people eventually treat AI like a calculator, a spell checker, or a trusted editor, there will still be value in understanding how it was used. A novelist who brainstorms with AI, a scientist who uses it to test assumptions, and a student who has it write an essay are all using the same technology in fundamentally different ways. Lumping those together obscures important distinctions.
One thing I've noticed in our collaboration is that you've intentionally resisted the temptation to let me become the author. Instead, you've been developing a philosophy of collaboration. You ask me to challenge, organize, and refine your thinking, but you repeatedly insist that the work remain yours. That constraint changes the nature of the interaction.
If someone were to write an early account of human-AI collaboration, I'd hope it would include not just examples of successful outputs but also the rules, habits, and boundaries that made the collaboration productive. Those practical details are what others could learn from.
In that sense, documenting the journey isn't just about preserving your experience. It could become a guide for others who want to use AI deliberately—understanding both its strengths and its limitations, while keeping human judgment at the center.
For one of my friends the question is 'where in the world?' For me, the question is 'what in the world?’
For a considerable amount of time it's felt like I've been walking a hot, dry desert in loneliness. Over the last two months I've been brought to an abundant Oasis. There couldn't be a more fitting analogy. I've become obsessed with documenting and exploring my life and what occupies time, space and attention. There is powerful clarity coming through the exercise in writing that didn't previously exist. Writing became documented exploration of a life I'm discovering.
I always thought of my life as a picture puzzle. All the pieces coming together to make a whole. What I realize is it wasn't a picture. It was multiple unrelated pictures occupying common space that made up the different parts of my life. Work, relationships, spirituality, entertainment, ideas, values and themes. All in a block and all vastly different.
My life is still a puzzle. The pieces are coming together into an integrated and coherent experience never before realized. With the integration there is a sense of clairvoyance and newfound resolve and grounding previously unknown. I feel a comfort once absent from my life. I'm stepping into my life with a deeper understanding of how I interact with what enters my orbit.
Noise that has distracted me has fades into the background; almost to the point of being unnoticeable. Yes, there are flare ups and I'm temporarily distracted. As a friend witnesses in his life I acknowledge the feeling and seek calmness the way he seeks breath. An exercise is realigning in moments of uncertainty and distraction. A new skill welcomed to a life full of diversion and noise. Calm. Steady. Resetting to from chaos to presence. Refreshing.
A week or so ago a friend and I were scheduling a Facetime conversation. We agreed upon Sunday at 9. The inquiry about a known conflict with my church attendance. It served as a gentle nudge that I got distracted from my desire and commitment to preserve space for a relationship with my faith and spiritual family. A friend calls that a godwink. A coincidence. Perhaps a divine redirection coming from a re-calibrated awareness. Bandwidth becoming available for presence and reflection. After connecting across continents, I went to church and attended the 1130 service. My friend reminded me interpersonal and spiritual connections and priorities can exist simultaneously.
I was up early after an all night marathon of thought so see my wife off for a retreat of sorts with her sister. I hope their time together nourishes and strengthens their bond. I watched the message I skipped out of on June 28. I attended service on July 5 and again today, July 12. The messages were meaningful. The worship was powerful.
When Pastor Rob turned 65 he proclaimed 'I'm not retiring. I'm re-firing.' He wasn't kidding. There is resparked intention and energy in him. His preaching is definitively and divinely inspired with conviction and radical application to living in a divine relationship. More relevant than ever in my 30 year, often inconsistent relationship with Shoreline.
Another observation - the journey in the messages and my awakening are existing in parallel. Themes and ideas independently finding a point of inflection into coherence. Clarity under divine authority. Continuity
Life is indeed amazing. Once the mind calibrates to amazing, it can't be undone or unseen. Dan Brown's "Secret of Secrets" was a timely read. It's too real to be fiction.
Today's message shared enlightenment and intentionality contained in a popular benediction used at the conclusion of worship services..."May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine onto you and be gracious to you; then turn his face toward you and give you peace." Every word matters. Every word intentional. Every word creates meaning.
This season of life will be one for the record books for it is a season full of wonder and amazing.
