An Apple a Day

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

I would be remiss not to write something about Steve Jobs.  As I type on my MacBook Pro.  Listening to iTunes.  Texting on my iPhone.  Tossing my iPod in my bag to listen to at work tomorrow.  Charging my Shuffle for the gym in the morning.  While streaming new episodes of Psych on my Apple TV.  So I guess that’s a little more than an Apple a day.  It’s my whole world.

And to digress for a moment  - new episodes of Psych start on Wednesday, which I am beyond excited about.  Capital L LOVE that show.  That’s a post all in and of itself.  I was trying to find a clip from the "Dual Spires" episode but couldn't find the one I wanted (Season 5 - stream it from Netflix). So for now there’s this video clip.  The endless tributes to the 80s is one of a zillion reasons I LOVE it. 

But back to Steve Jobs. Our first computer was an Apple and has been all my parents ever bought.  (These days, they are out-technologying me with their iPad.) When other people were getting IBMs or Commodores or whatever was hot in the 80s we had the IIc.  And honestly it was probably the only one in town.  By which I mean village because it was less than 10,000 people so we didn’t actually qualify for the “town” title.  Ah, suburbia.  At least NYC was only thirty minutes away. Alas, we were also the family with the Betamax and Colecovision. (VHS and Atari, what?)

“Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

My dad always did a lot of research and was all about the better product, even if it wasn’t the most popular product.  A rebel in his own time.  (Though really it was more about quality versus rebellion.  He’s really very much a creature of habit, which I’m sure is partly where I get it from.) 

Mousetrap  = Genius.  When the cat changes
into a dog and can eat the kitties.  Brilliant!

So what if we couldn’t rent movies and we only had about six video games?  We had Star Wars and Annie, which I beyond committed to memory.  AND I was amazing at Mousetrap and Donkey Kong and pretty good at Venture.  And was obsessed with Donkey Kong Jr.  Hello!  How freaking fun was it to leap from vine to vine?  I think being the different kid in town had long lasting effects in the sense that I don’t mind doing my own thing.  I fully admit that I followed the pack for a long time. (Who didn’t want to fit in?)  But eventually I figured out being different is better than okay.  I’m just saying.

And hello, years later EVERYONE is about Apple, so there you go.  I was a cutting edge kid.  And not gonna lie, I think Coleco was uber cool.

And while Steve Jobs absolutely was a game changer and world changer and revolutionized essentially how talk, listen, look and access information (and each other) he also said some pretty amazing things.  His Stanford Commencement speech is filled with pearls of wisdom and as I read it, I can’t help but stop and think about what I’m doing with my life.  What I want to do with my life.  What my dreams are.  What I wish I was doing. (Instead of just *talking* about what I wish I was doing.)  Thinking about the past.  About the mistakes.  (“Don’t forget.  No regrets.”)  About not repeating them.  And about trying to stay hopeful about my future.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them 

looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect 

in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, 

karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has 

made all the difference in my life.”

I have a lot to be grateful for and to be happy about.  The past month has been such a huge shift for the better that I’m almost waiting for the other shoe to drop.  (Glass half empty?  Me?  No!  Never!)  But there is a lot of good.  And there’s a lot I want to do.  And sometimes, sadly, it takes something tragic to make you stop and realize what you should be doing.  Should say.  Should let go of.  Should embrace.  Should be grateful for.  Should forgive. 

With much respect to a true innovator and inspiration, I hope I can channel even an ounce of the courage and imagination and drive that Steve Jobs had.  And to commit his words into how I live my life from this moment forward. 

“Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”