Back to the Future: Are we there yet?

The Back to the Future triliogy has to be on every 30 something dad's "must own" list. I loved all three episodes (yes even part 3). But there is something extra special about episode 2 It reflects our own dreams and hopes for the tech of tomorrow (though 2015 isnt that far off).

So what's come true (pretty close)? What was way off? What is just around the corner? And what is way better about our alternate timeline?

True/ close enough
Obsession with 3D

Tablets becoming ubiquetes:

Video games that you don't need to use physical controls.

Once cutting edge tech being sold as items of nostalgia.

Large wall mounted screens with picture in picture

Video Chat

Finger scan door entry

Digital cameras/ binoculars:

Voice interaction with tech

Way Off:
Hover tech being at a daily usable level:

Fax still being comletely relevant.

Power laces

Self drying and adjusting jackets

Dehydrated pizza/ food hydrators:

Soon:
Heads up display, computers we wear (google glass, iglasses... etc)

Even better than the movie:
Health tech improvements/ medical leaps.
Self driving cars:

click to see the video clip

Canadian Flag

Canadian Flag

Map of Canada

April's fool.

On the 1st of April 1980 Thando Gajula was born. On the 1st of April 2005 he drove out to a remote location, climbed over a fence, walked along the top of a damn wall and jumped off to his death below.

Thando was a brother. We didn't have the same mothers. We weren't even from the same cultural or colour background. But he was a brother. As deep as that word implies. We expereinced joy and pain together. Our lives had forever become intertwined. But Thando has also died a thief. Not in any sort of materialistic intentional manner... but he stole from me. He stole a friend that is now gone forever... until we meet face to face in eternity.

He has left a hole that refuses to be filled.

Oh April fool- by Clint botha

Oh April fool why did you leap?
was there freedom in that fall?
Has grace revealed itself,
It's fullness felt in death?

Oh how I wish that you had stumbled
That death itself had cheated me.
But my friend has robbed me,
Using tools of life's twilight foe.
And this rage now rests on you.

Too close to the sun you sored.
Icheris, you have melted wings.
And you tumbled past the darkness.
Abba arms have caught you
Grace abounds in all things.
Now you are ever closer to the Son
cheated life in death oh april fool.
But I am the fool and you have cheated me.

Ubuntu!

There is a saying in isiXhosa the language of the Xhosa people of South Africa. Translated loosely it says, “People are people because of other people.” We are inter-connected. This isn’t new age thought. We have a responsibility to the rest of the human race. What we do affects others as they affect others. It’s pay it forward thinking, but as a believer in Jesus, I think it’s His thinking. Jesus understood something that we so often fail to grasp. What he did, no matter how seemingly small had an effect. Why? The reason being, with God, there are no mere coincidences but rather co incidences. Everything. Every step .. every person we meet. He knows… he wove into his plan. If you are meeting somebody… God wanted you to meet them in order that you could have some kind of impact in their lives. Wow! What power. What a release. What responsibility. We are called as believers to live Ubuntu. To live as though we have an affect on other people.

I just watched a movie called, “In my country.” The most powerful scene in the movie, the scene that had me in tears was all about Ubuntu. The movie is about the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa just after the end of apartheid. This little boy stood and watched as a white Police officer slaughtered both his parents before his eyes. The white cop realizing his evil breaks down in the session in front of the little boy.. He gets down on his knees before him and says, “I’ll do anything… I’ll put him through school, I’ll look after him. I’m so sorry.” He breaks down in tears before the child. This 7 year old little boy who hasn’t spoken since the murder of his parents says nothing. He just stands up before the knelt white man and throws his arms around his neck. Whoa, that scene cut me up. This child understood so well the power that people have in influencing others lives. Even to the point of exercising forgiveness for the most atrocious of crimes against his family. Look around you… see how connected you actually are to everyone. How can you make an impact in somebody’s life… no matter how small? There are no limits… we have so much power to make a difference we just have to have the spiritual balls to do it. That means getting off of our comfortable rear ends. Turning off the TV and making a choice.

The call.

Wow… another flight across the world. These moments really are starting to “merge” into one. This last good bye was a hard one. I mean not hard like it was saying good bye to my Fiancé but definitely right up there… well… really difficult in a different way. This last goodbye was with my spiritual brother. I am a follower of Jesus. I firmly believe in 2 things. I believe that every follower of Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) has a call on their lives. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes to rob kill and destroy, but I have come so you may have life more abundantly.” I like the translation that says “Life to the extreme.” I don’t believe God gives us calling because we need to do stuff for him… He’s God… he doesn’t need us to do sweet squat….. and the type of thinking in believers that says that we are required to do works… well that’s religion.. I believe the reason God gives us calling is for that exact reason in John 10:10…. Because every human being needs calling. It’s that element that makes us thrive. It makes us have a full, abundant, EXTREME LIFE.

I was speaking of 2 things I firmly believe. The second is this. I believe that in our life… every so often God will bring a person so imperative to our ministry and calling that you fit them and they fit you like a puzzle. Now hopefully if you are married or getting married your spouse is that person. In my case I believe my fiancé is defiantly a person who share passion vision and calling with me. But I also believe that there are very significant people outside of marriage that ministry wouldn’t be the same without. A yolk fellow. One who you share the wait with. David was married, but he had Jonathon. This man who understood his heart. Helped him fight his battles as a man. They protected each other… shared a common passion...pushed each other on through the tough times.

That person for me is the person I lived with a shared vision and God given passion with for the past 3 years. David Torr is a man with so much deep over flowing passion. His heart breaks for South Africa. A nation that isn’t even the place of his birth. But he is more African than some Africans. He would die for South Africa, to share the love of Jesus with it’s people. I am proud to think of him as a brother. I can’t wait to be in South Africa with him just doing what God has told us to do. To give it all and not count the cost.

It’s awesome to share life with people who understand your passion. And they understand what passion is. It’s that thing that you would suffer for. That you would do for. For Dave and I it’s First Jesus and tied into that the people of South Africa… and the rest of Africa… or in fact any place that God calls us to.

Reality, surreality and fishpaste...

Life is real. I mean you feel. You feel joy, pain, ecstacy, agony. It's sharp. It cuts deep. Life makes you bleed a little. But there are those times where life seems somewhat surreal. It seems like some kind of dream like inter-action that you're ready to wake up from at any moment but you never do. One such moment I remember clearly was when one of my close friends died in a motor cycle accident. I was, I guess, 14 maybe 15. I was lying on my bed in a black goofy Disney t-shirt. Goofy was dressed up like some kind of weird animated fitness instructor.... yeah I went through a weird Disney era... everyone was doing it... anyway. I lay there in a fetal ball.. Shaking as I cried. I cried hard and I cried long and my nose began to bleed. I kept thinking I was going to wake up from this semi conscious delusion... but I never did.

Another such moment is happening in my life right now. Everything seems so surreal. Like it's happening but it's all hapening in cotton wool. It's dull and only half real to me at the moment. Maybe this is my emotional coping mechanism (however unfortunate that is) for dealing with loss. This isn't death... but there is a loss. A grieving that is neccesary. I've lived in the USA for the last 2 years. I've made new friends to add to my list of incredible old friends back home. I love them all and it places me in this rift. Torn by a deep precipice. In South Africa there is a term that is used by certain Afrikaans speaking people to describe white English speaking South African men. The word is "Soutjie." It's rather derogatory... but I assure you it helps me deliver a point.... somewhere in this mess. Translated the word means salty. The name was given to English men living in south Africa to mean that they have one foot in Europe and one foot in south Africa and their....um... wedding tackle is hanging in the water. It's means they're torn... always having both places as their homes. I feel the USA is now my home... San Diego is also liquid that pulsates through my veins. But I will forever be Africa. Africa is my mother. I hear her whispering to me softly... no matter how far away I am. I am white... but I am African born and raised. She is my shelter... my home... it's time to go home.

P.S: Not sure how to fit fishpaste into all this.... um... Oh yeah! Fishpaste is kinda surreal.

Life indeed is a lay over.

I've now been in countless airports. Sitting in wait at countless terminals and most often waiting at countless lay overs between places. I've played every airport game in the book to not bore myself into some comatose state that leaves me falling asleep on the cold linoleum floor only to be scooped up by airport security and held as a vagrant terrorist using up heaps of airport bureaucracy reserved for other important patrons. Ok it's 2:16 am and I'm starting to hallucinate and not make any sense even to myself.

Now I wanted to be vaguely philosophical to celebrate the name change of my blog so let me at least play at some kind of attempt. Here's my theory in life you are always going somewhere or waiting to go somewhere layed over at some filthy nowhere airport. Now even nowhere lay overs can be part of the adventure... so don't knock it. Also choosing to go nowhere is in a sense going somewhere and that place is in fact "Nowhere." So apathetic behavior does have a result... not really the kind that bears banana's and apples and pears... or any other kind of fruit.... more like raisins or bran... or something else not really fit for human consumption.

Now at the risk of being shot to snot by various commentators I believe that plays out into the spiritual aspect of our lives. Whether we make a choice toward some deity or not we still have to make a choice of some kind. Even if that choice is no choice... sooner or later the lay over of life is going to come to an end and we're going to have to board the plane out of here and hopefully we're on the plane that goes somewhere worth while.

Now I've heard some people say that they don't believe in God or the afterlife... we call them atheists. Well my theory is that atheists are in fact the people who do not exist. See to be an atheist you would need to know absolutely everything beyond all human comprehension. Now if you indeed did have this omniscient knowledge at your fingertips you would be God and if you were God well... Then you couldn't be an atheist could you. So I'd say maybe... just an idea mind you... but maybe at least be humble enough to call yourself an agnostic. At least have an ego small enough to say "Well... I'm not sure..." anyway.... as for me and my house we will serve the lord.... I've got nothing to lose.