OneWebDay (Category: life)

According to those good folks at the Beeb, today is OneWebDay.

Susan Crawford, a law professor at Cardozo School of Law, New York, said: "I am hoping that people will take a step back and recognise how much the web has changed their lives over the last ten years, and reflect on how they would like the web to change the world in future.

"I also want people to see themselves as having a connection to the web - the web is made of people. It will be a moment of reflection and celebration."

This is the first OneWebDay, and the organisers plan for it to become an annual event.

So, my immediate thoughts:

• If it wasn't for the web... I would do far more work
• If it wasn't for the web... I would be in contact with fewer people (even if you separate email and the wider internet)
• If it wasn't for the web... I would miss out on the wonderful community of bloggers, gamers (hello Eshraval and Gwenthia, not to mention a world of Gloranthaphiles!), greenbelters etc etc
• If it wasn't for the web... I would not labour under the impression that my writings interested people! Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to at least offer (mainly gaming) material to others. The fact that it is appreciated by some assuages my ego (!) and hopefully provides light entertainment.
• If it wasn't for the web... I might think more theologically, more often
• If it wasn't for the web... I would not do things I should not quite as much (that called "sin", folks)
  

And finally...

• If it wasn't for the web... I wouldn't offer immediate thoughts at all. I'd either have lots of very small, unfinished pieces of writing on my computer(s) or I would have written a lesser number of more considered and polished pieces.

While it's not a meme per se, would anyone else like to pick up the phrase?

As for reflecting on how I'd like to see the web change the world in the future, I suspect the web has ensured that I will find very little time to make the effort of thought. A sad, but true, note on which to end.  ¶ 12:26 pm 1 comments

  For your comfort and safety, as if (Category: life)

A rather amusing, and though-provoking snippet, from The Econmoist, of all things. (Thanks to Angus for the tip....)  ¶ 9:16 am 0 comments

  119:176 - faithfully straying (Category: faith)

As you may be able to tell, I should be doing something else. I have found the delight of the simple things, spending time talking to folks in MLPK, time in being. Which is making the work that really needs to be done (writing the monthly "Minister's Musings" for The Kings Hill Directory) unattractive at best, near impossible at worst.

But to the point. At Morning Prayer this morning I was struck by the final verse of the Psalm. Verse 176 of Ps. 119:

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

I'm no expert on the Psalms. I know we in the C of E are meant to use them weekly. I know they are, to say the least a mixed bag, with some wonderful and some terrible parts, especially if you try to fit them into a cosy "nice" Christianity (because in places you can't). In some places they are distinctly discomforting, but this caused me to ponder:

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

The Psalm, besides being the longest in the book, eulogises on the place of the Law. On faithfulness to God's precepts. The psalmist seems to rejoice in the Word of God, and on the whole be pretty sure of the right things due to him because of his righteousness. And yet he can still say:

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

A sure corrective to our narrow triumphalisms, of whatever stripe they are: liberal, evangelical. catholic, fundamentalist, charismatic, bland-middle-of-road-ism. The ability, even in the midst of the individual certainty of faithfulness, to acknowledge our lostness and need of being found.

For today I find that humbling and comforting.

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

How about you?  ¶ 10:57 am 0 comments