The sun sets on another day…
As the sun set I watched fiery globe across the horizon scorch the skies with virtually unlimited power. it set my mind off on yet another strange path.
There is an old adage that says “Words are free. It’s how you use them that may cost you.” this spoke to me today as I watched the suns scorch the earth with its fiery globe. I’m always amazed at how people can say something and not realize the ramifications of their words. It’s one thing to say something in a one-on-one discussion but another thing entirely to present it in a way that it can be reused or re quoted over and over forever.
Take me for instance. In 1989 I was giving a lecture on computer systems and made the statement “A 20-megabyte hard drive is more than we will ever need.” If you think about that now you probably think I’m crazy or didn’t know what I was talking about. At the time however technology was minimal and massive spreadsheets and documents took up a fraction of the size that they do today. As I look at today’s technology, I often wonder how much of it is real and how much of it is bloated simply because the functionality is still very similar. Still, I spoke and now I am far wrong. I was right for the moment, but I didn’t consider all of the possibilities the future might bring. (considering I have almost 15 terabytes available on my personal system now)
That’s an easy statement but when you consider all of the things that have been said over the last 20 years out of anger and frustration between people, you’ll kind of get the idea that as much as my issue is brought up over something silly something more serious may get brought up far more and in the end may turn out to be a deciding factor in someone’s future. Who knows right?
All I can suggest is that we all be reasonably careful with how we present our words realizing that interpretation is in the mind of the receiver not the sender.
So as the sun sets on another day let’s take a moment and consider our words carefully. As we do be mindful of how wonderful those words are or how wonderful they are not as or before you’re saying them and remember the world changes constantly and it’s up to us to adapt with it, no matter what
Sleep sweet, love life, and words are wonderful…