Those 3 Questions Impact Huge Today!

1) Where do you come from? It sounds so innocent; a question of the past; but the amazing thing about our memories as people is that they are flavored with how we feel about the moments of the past. Oddly the memories of people who are tested reflect that very negative events are remembered, and yet, they are often as skewed in terms of reliably verifiable detail, as pleasant memories. The reality of what is being learned is that we have poor recall of our pasts, collectively the past is flavored, and that the truth of the urban myth bears much semblance to the reality of the urban community creating it.

"But in every narrative of history, the popular story isn't the whole story. The losers may read what the winners write, but they don't have to take it as gospel. A complete telling of history must take into account the actions and motivations of past actors on all sides, as well as a recognition that the relating of history is an action in the present day, subject to influence by present-day power and political structures. Such a full understanding of history reveals that what we often view as static "fact" is in reality a constructed process." [Roby, 2005]

What kind of clarity do we bring to the past? What kind of clarity does the past bring to us? Our memories are flooded with meanings that are ancillary to fact, and so we are often left with a partial image, but it satisfies what we need to know. It tells us somewhat of where we come from. The facts of the clarity we might desire may not match up with the reality of the illusion we seek to dispel. Do we lie about the past? It isn't so much a matter of out and out lying about the past, as it is, flavorings of that past which suit our recollection To claim that there is no gray in the past is to be unrealistic in any apprehension of what was taken in by the teller of the life experiences there. On the other hand to negate what they have experienced, whether flavored or not, is to deny what reality was experienced or recorded as folklore.

This issue has interpersonal amplifications into the lives we all lead, and it has cultural flavor, it is a large and powerful part of who and what we are individually, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. It means that pain experienced by one can indeed end up being shared by many. It means that communication theory has a long way to go in consideration of the power of the telling of the tale, and yet it means that we are making progress as evidenced by recent science importing video use into the paradigm. Question is- how useful or not useful will we find this to be, "As personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, and wireless networks have taught us, technologies that facilitate the capture, processing, and sharing of information can have enormous, profound global impact, impact that emerges in often unexpected ways from the uncoordinated actions of millions or billions of individuals." [SciTech, 2005]

What we might conclude from these comparisons is that we have hope for a better reviewed future, what we might want to lock down, however, is the importance of respecting the past memories we have, accurate or not, they are what we know of where we come from.

2) Where are you now? Confusion about the present is easy to institute into the mind of a person who believes they understand reality. It goes like this, three people are coming out of the supermarket, and they hear a loud collision. As they look in the direction of the sound, they see a car which has been "rammed into," another person said, however, that it swerved, this was said because they believed they saw it swerve, although, clearly, none of them noticed the street until they heard the sound? Two of them felt like they could agree on the whole situation, while the third member felt excluded, and in some sense became defensive. Of course as the time from the incident becomes distant, so do the flavorings, and, when asked; how many people were in the car, saw the accident, or heard what was going on, the story became diverse. Awareness is often pointed to as an antidote to confusion in perception, yet as we have come to know, this is rarely the case, we aren't dispassionate observers even when we believe ourselves to be.

In writing to achieve clarity we seek after the five W's, who, what, when, where, why or how; and with these we come very close to having the settled data of an event. Where you are now may have to do with who you are with, where you are at physically, and mentally, when you are there, what that state is about and why. It's not merely a matter of being, and then awareness of such, it is also be more in tune with the parameters that determine what you can be about in that moment. This zone of the moment is spoken of by sports stars as a place of piece in the midst of explosive chaos. In athletes it is noted that being "in the zone" makes a difference in performance. So much so that research about how to achieve this peak mental attitude has been done.

[Hanin, 2003]

So we see that where you are is important and how aware of where you are is vitally important, that your focus be in the moment, but again, that your awareness be capable of seeing yourself in that place.

3) Where are you going? This seems such an easy conclusion, if you are graduating from high school, the obvious couple of choices, "I'm going to work," into a branch of military, "to college," those are the obvious and seemingly normal choices; yet from what we've previously gone into, wouldn't you expect something a bit more in depth? We live in an age where technology plays such a large role in the lives of people, it is becoming more a factor in the lives of decision makers than often, they are aware of. Destiny for some people will be tied to the knowledge or lack of knowledge regarding technology. Where a person is going; will link into their use of modern communications technology, affording communications about the work, and accomplishments at an unprecedented level. Where a person is going will depend upon factors involving their ability to adjust to environments that at present are hinted at, but many of which will come into being this year, or next. Such mysteries about the future have always been a factor of growth in the various aspects of the technology of the realm, however, in terms of the speed of growth, we are seeing adjustments to whole new realms of technology taking place every eighteen months (or in many instances, less than eighteen months).

The traditional models of what the future holds no longer apply as the very fabric of what they were made of has changed. Where you are going cannot be accurately dreamt of, except in very small incremental steps. This change in the nature of the future, tied so intimately into the nature of the technological advances within the culture, for the first time, intimates that such choices are going to be very difficult to derive with certainty. Many fields, such as justice, have more sub divisions and specializations springing up as a result of technology; than anyone might have believed possible. The educational systems tasked with preparing students for such choices are themselves fully taxed to maintain the pace. Technology is now outpacing the ability of those who attempt to keep abreast of change for instructional purposes to such an extent that regular, yearly enhancements to education are becoming the norm. For some this isn't the dream of being able to learn a career function until it is understood fully, and thus, they are able to relax into a routine, find themselves in a world where routine has ceased to exist.

The answers lie in strategic thinking, in being able to design contingency modes of education into action which is meritorious to the person's life. This is an extremely challenging and fast paced future, and it arrives for all of us, tomorrow. Where are you going, it's hard to determine, but wherever it is let's hope it will be a place you will be satisfied to have arrived at, and if not, let's hope you have passage to somewhere that is equally satisfying. The type of career move behavior which was drilled into past generations (and especially American generations) is slowly becoming a more fluid and more contingent type of existence. It will be a challenge to learn to think in terms which aren't competitive but collaborative, strategic rather than tactical, but we all must begin to see that truly where we are going is into the future, starting, with our next breath.

References:

Hanin, Yuri L. (2003, February). Performance Related Emotional States in Sport: A Qualitative Analysis [48 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 4(1). Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-03/1-03hanin-e.htm [Date of Access: Month Day, Year].

Roby, John; "THE PAST IN THE PRESENT: ARCHAEOLOGY AND IDENTITY IN A HISTORIC AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH", supervised by Kanter, Georgia State University, viewable on the World Wide Web as an approved electronic version at: http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-112944/unrestricted/roby_john_r_200512_ma.pdf , 2005

Science and Technology Review, "Say Cheese", article reflecting the use of video memory, viewable on the World Wide Web at: http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2005/08/say_cheese.htm , 2005