How come grandchildren get to be so clever?

The Internet today is comparable to the Industrial Revolution. The speed at which one can access information and goods and services is like the steam engine that revolutionized life for our forefathers.

Life before saw the dissemination of information by way of newspapers, word of mouth and country stores. Small towns relied on the local general stores and waited for travelling salesmen to bring luxuries from the outside world. The pace of life was slow and measured.

Then came the Sears catalog - shoppers paradise right in your own home! This brought it's own little revolution of "buy on line".

Today, the Internet has brought every little town in the remotest parts of the world into the mainstream of a rushing torrent of information and products that can be accessed by the click of a button. Anyone with a telephone and a computer can be privy to the wonders of the world.

The information highway revolution has brought the village to the city, and given the city slicker a taste of countries and places they would never have seen. A trip to the Rain Forests can be taken in a virtual tour, right from your chair. Travel by plane or boat is no longer necessary. You can travel first class in a flash of time in your lounge chair from Ancient Egypt to Science Fiction Galaxies of the future.

All this has spawned a new wave of business practices, new Snakeskin Salesmen, and a new international language. Bits and Bytes are no longer little pieces and bites of food. Webinars are today's seminars. Java is no longer just Coffee. Trawling is no longer fishing for food to eat. A mouse is not something to be trapped and banished from the house. Rather the mouse is today's essential tool!!

My seven year old granddaughter came to the office with me on "take your kid to work day". The fifteen minute drive from her house to the office was an exhausting journey of taxing questions, among them being "where do you go when you die?", and "where does the sun go at night?". When we got to the office, I sat her down at the computer and told her to Google her questions. The fact that she knew how to Google didn't surprise me!

So, off this second grader went, fingers flying over the keyboard, typing in her questions and selecting the results with her finger clicking on the mouse like a fiery extension of her hand. By this time an hour had passed, and I dropped into my chair, mentally exhausted by this barrage of questions.

Her second grader cousin went to his father and said "Dad, I need a credit card for my birthday". "Why?" answered his dad. "Because I Googled Spiderman and want to buy it, but I don't have a credit card!" he exclaimed.

What's my point?

Every question had an immediate answer.

Every child can access a world of information and can absorb and learn at their own pace and intellect. Inquisitiveness can be instantly gratified by a search engine. Somewhere, someone has researched and written an article. Every person can publish their innermost thoghts for anyone else to read. It's like having your own psychoanalyst in your home. Post a blog, and people will answer your questions, fears, hopes and aspirations.

The world has shrunk to encompass your one room, your own chair. You are privy to the wonders of the world.

How lucky we are!

Tribute to Liviu Lebrescu

I was moved and insired by a talk by Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis and have just read her book "Life is a Test". She is a Holocaust Survivor and runs the Hineni Institute of Learning in New York. http://www.hineni.org/rebbetzin.asp

While I was pondering the meaning of life, and one's journey through the good and bad, I was sent the following poem, which I am proud to publish here. I do believe there is a purpose for each one of us in this life. However crazy life seems.

Philip C. Selz wrote this poem about Mr. Liviu Librescu, who survived the holocaust and saved the lives of students at Virginia Tech on Monday and died from gunshot wounds. Philip read it at his synagogue and the Rabbi suggested that he distribute it to as many places as he could. I hope it touches you like it touched me.

My Stand

A Tribute to Liviu Librescu

By Philip C. Selz

In the darkest times we’ve seen, I was sent into the camps

As I smelled the stench of burning flesh, I knew my kin were gone

Survival was my only thought, I knew I must come through

But I didn’t know the reason that my living must go on

And when the war had ended, liberation finally came

And I grew to be a man and shortly after took a wife

And we raised our kids in Israel and we did the best we could

And we lived for those who died and worked to make a useful life

Then a teaching job came to me in America one day

And I thought that building new young minds was destiny for me

So I traveled to Virginia and I made a brand new start

And I taught engineering in this homeland of the free

Now I hear the hallways screaming as shots are fired there

And I hear the terror in the screams and understand their plight

So I bar the door from danger and I tell my students “Run!”

And as the bullets breach the door I know that I must fight

And in these final moments as my life is seeping out

I think back over 60 years and finally understand

My own salvation now makes sense as children flee and live

I was saved that day to save this day, I’ve finally made my stand.