Do you find yourself getting sucked into the Internet vortex? You know the scenario -your daily cheery inspiration arrives promptly at 9 a.m. Suddenly you're busy on the Net trying to nail down whether or not the Donald Gardner who coined the pithy saying about what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea is the same fellow who wrote that immortal Yuletide classic, All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Your next glance at the friendly clock on the world's biggest time waster confirms you've now spent two hours trying to answer a very stupid question.
I firmly believe that Wikipedia is short for Wicked People Diverting Attention. I'd love to have a loonie for every time I've gone searching for background information on some obscure fact and later found, after reading 20 associated sites, that I still don't have the answer to my original question. See paragraph about my friend Donald Gardner - actually we may now be related. I've spent more time reading about the Donald Gardners of the world than my own family on Ancestry.com (another giant black hole).
I think the reason it's so easy to go down the virtual rabbit hole is probably the oldest in the world - it means you don't have to do what you really should be doing. Who wouldn't rather spend 60 minutes looking for Donald Gardner if it meant they didn't have to actually work on a work report (due yesterday)?
I find it rather inspiring that my daily inspiration can take me on an ever more enchanting trip just by typing a related word in my good friend Google's hot spot. Who needs dope when you go on a mind-expanding trip just sitting at your computer?
After all, how would I have known Thomas Edison, while an electrical genius, was also one mighty fine wordsmith? What can you say about a guy who tells the world, "Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." I wonder what he'd say if he knew what his magnificent invention of power had come to? Who needs overalls when you sit at your desk in pajamas and learn all about the Donald Gardners of the world? Come to think of it, who even needs a desk - why get out of bed?
One of the inspirations I received this summer had me thinking for a few minutes. A guy named Daniel "Rudy" Reuttiger said, "The greatest thing you can give someone is hope."
Well, I ended up disagreeing with this esteemed gentleman.
I think there are many great things you can give someone: a screen that goes instantly black when someone besides you looks at it - how better to hide your time-wasting ways? An ergonomic chair that prevents neck strain when you've surfed for hours or, barring that, a relaxing massage when your spine has reached the point of no return.
After all, as Albert Einstein said, "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
I think Albert would have loved Wikipedia.
