10.07.2010

thoughts from the concrete steps

last night i was sitting on the staircase thinking about how i would have virtually no knowledge of how to build it, and no ambition to see it built, had there not come someone before me who both knew how, and deemed it important. 

i know so very few things, but kind of piggy-back on the body of knowledge and accomplishment that has been accumulated by both my predecessors and contemporaries.

when it comes down to it, few of us know enough to get by without this conglomeration of past and present thinkings and doings, and no single one of us could rebuild if we suddenly lost all information and infrastructure.

kind of pathetic, isn't it? we build our lego houses on the skyscrapers of those who went before us. our every action is solely dependent on that ever-expanding collection of knowledge that is mostly the product of shaper minds, of stronger and more determinate souls.

well, i hope this doesn't lastingly depress anyone. look at the brightside! we have a morning full of quasi-meaningful, hyper-caffeinated activities to look to, come sunrise.
as ever,

joel


p.s. this post by andrew is really intriguing

4 comments:

  1. I have pondered some of these very thoughts myself, my good Joel! And in this Information Age, we are able to perpetrate these sorts of piggybackings at the speed of light, are we not?

    P.S.
    The dash of sarcasm was a nice touch.

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  2. Oh Joel!
    This is both humorous and poignant, and deeply true. But rather than find it depressing, I see the chance for humility /gratefulness for those "sharper minds and those stronger, more determinate souls."
    Great concept, and genius way to express it!

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  3. @mom: Thanks. Yea, I'll agree that that outlook is valid as well.

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  4. @andrew: Thank you very much : )
    "And in this Information Age, we are able to perpetrate these sorts of piggybackings at the speed of light, are we not?"
    very good point. i do that every day... i'm doing that right now. haha

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