Connecting the dots . . .
"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. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path."
- Steve Jobs
My son, Lukas used that quote in his speech at his high school graduation recently. He used it in reference to looking back over his time at Thames High School, and in particular over his final year there as Head Boy. I know I'm biased - but it was an amazing speech! Needless to say, I was sobbing by the end.I thought of Steve Job's quote last night during a discussion my family and I were having after watching the movie, The Pianist. (If there is anyone out there who has not seen this movie, it is a remarkable movie and a painful true story.) While I was watching the movie, I was in physical pain with a knot in my stomach, wondering how it is that human beings can be so cruel to one another. How is it possible that we can so lose sight of our unity. How can we become so polarized, so us and them oriented?What occurred to me is that people stop Paying Attention, they stop noticing that what they are doing is so completely and humanly wrong. And perhaps, it is only in looking back and connecting the dots, that some of us make realizations that should have been made along the way. It is imperative that we pay attention NOW, and not look back and connect the dots and realize that we got it so very wrong.For those of you who have not read or heard Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech at Standford, please take the time to watch this. It is uplifting and inspiring, and will perhaps remind us not to wait too long before we connect the dots. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA] Please let me know your thoughts on Steve Jobs speech, and any stories you have looking back and connecting the dots.And as always thank you for taking the time to visit, I appreciate it.