It's the human condition to always strive for something greater. 100 years ago few people could have imagined the luxuries and the numerous forms of mass-communication we enjoy today. We've come so mind-bogglingly far...and we're still reaching upward. I say "we" in the collective sense...since I, myself, can't say I'm doing much to innovate new forms of transportation, communication, or any sort of invention. I'm just one of millions of people who are in the midst of it all, looking around myself in awe at all the world has to offer. What are we reaching towards? Perfection, I dare say. Don't we have it, in many respects? What keeps us from sitting on our haunches to bask in it, and just rest for a while? Well, that's the fun thing about people. We work together. With just Bill Gates, the world would be a lonely place for him. Sure, he could sit around and invent things, but for what? With all the billions of people in the world now, and the billions that have come before us, and the billions that are sure to follow, we've made one heckuva collective effort. People have the means to think, to invent, and, to rest at intervals. While one great thinker is resting, another is surely hot in action.
OK, now in my puny corner of the universe, I tend to re-invent the wheel doing the most basic things. Mopping the floor, for instance. I developed an aversion to mopping floors while I was in the Army because they'd always supply you with a permanently filthy mop, and say, "Make the floors clean." Hah. So I decided in my civilian years that mops were icky and if I had it my way I'd rather get down on my hands and knees with Windex and paper towels...it would suck, but at least the floors would be sparkling clean. It took me a while to realize that Windex wasn't the best medium to use, as it left the floor sticky and dull in the long run...so I turned to Orange Clean...sticky too...then...Eureka! Mr. Clean floor solution. Brilliant, eh? It existed all along, I was just too proud to think that anyone would have invented just what I'd been dreaming of for so long. And even better, it's only been in the last few months that I realized that mops are good to use, heck, they're even a lot more efficient than getting down on my hands and knees with paper towels. Just use a new, clean mop. Brilliant. I'm so smart. Amazing that people knew this crap all along, and I'm just now catching on.
So do you see how lonely and dark my puny corner of the universe is? I need to learn how to reach out and take a dip in the mind pool of ideas that've already made life easier.
