Morada Musings

Posts Tagged ‘technology’

I am thankful for modern medicine, especially the technology portion.  Today my niece safely birthed her son into this world.  Recalling the difficulties and danger of her daughter’s birth, and two decades earlier my son’s, makes me aware and grateful again for the miracle of ultrasound and refined surgical techniques.  Our children are here and healthy; a century ago they probably would not be and my niece, my sister and me might very well not be either.

To be able to see into the body in such detail, to be able to recognize a problem, foresee dangers, has revolutionized childbirth as well as other life and death situations.  Yesterday’s news included an article about a man who was considered to be in a permanent vegetative state for the past 23 years but, through scanning with new technology, was discovered to be in a “minimally conscious” state – a significant difference.  He has not been unaware as previously thought.  The whole dynamic of his ongoing care will be much altered now, not only because of the realization of his sentience, but because of the advances in working with our human bodies that have occured in those 23 years.  This is truly amazing stuff!

I am also grateful for the plethora of pharmaceuticals we have in our arsenal.  I won’t go into the ramifications of misuse, overuse and other abuses of them by physician and patient alike – that’s a whole different article!  What I am talking about is the huge jump in longevity and quality of life we now enjoy because of the many drugs available to cure illnesses and manage chronic diseases which in the millenia leading up to this century would have been fatal or incapacitating.

From the huge transformation brought about with the discovery of penicillan to the simple relief of seasonal allergies, our modern society reaps the benefits of medical technology in ways both profound and subtle.  With our ever increasing understanding of botanicals and biochemistry, we have eradicated or subdued killers like smallpox and tetnus, manage diabetes and tuberculosus, cure cancers.  Thanks to epinephrine and steroids, my other sister and I survived life threatening allergic reactions.

For all of this awesome, astounding knowledge we’ve been given, these marvelous gifts, I am truly thankful!

I am thankful for technology.  No, really, I am!  And not just because it allows me to work from home, though that’s a really big part of it.  But I love the ways it enables me to do things that were previously hard, tedious or boring and to do them in much less time.  Like bookkeeping – how cool is it that with a few clicks here and there, all my transactions for the month are downloaded into software that remembers what category I consider each one to fall into and files everything just where it ought to be, redundantly so I can find it in any format I need?  Did I ever pay that bill?  A few clicks will tell me.  Tax prep takes a fraction of the time it used to and in a minute or less I can find out how much I spent on business expenses and tax-deductible utilities.  It could even reconcile itself if settings are tweaked just so.

Correspondence is likewise quicker, although sometimes that’s not such a great thing!  While I no longer have to dread making a mistake while typing in triplicate with carbon paper, there’s something to be said for the care it required.  No simple backspace, no highlight and delete.  In those days, a mistake meant several minutes and a few steps to correct it.  Either it involved rolling the sheets up enough to fold back the top sheet and each carbon to erase the error (without over-erasing which could tear the paper) or in later years, very carefully covering up the error with appropriately colored White-Out and waiting for it dry on the sheet before doing the next one.  Then you had to make sure everything was exactly lined up again as you rolled the sheets back down to the line you were on before continuing.  In this time of email, instant messaging and texting, we are in constant communication and do so at such a fast pace that we seldom take the time to edit ourselves.  We write too much, too often or things we shouldn’t, or wouldn’t if we’d stopped long enough to think about it.  So I’m very grateful for software that keeps up with my mind, not to mention a keyboard and mouse which give me three different ways to correct myself!

I love being able to print almost anything in color, any time I want, in any quantity I desire.  Whether it be photographs, brochures or business cards, I can do it day or night on any kind of paper I want and can even do tests in gray scale draft to save on ink.  Combine this with being able to design collateral, cards, even t-shirts through this amazing thing called the world wide web.  We’re so accustomed to doing things “online” and “through the web” that we rarely stop to really think about how utterly astounding this all is!  There’s a video clip being circulated in which a comedian talks about how everything is amazing but no one is happy.  Sadly seems to be true.

I’m grateful to be old enough to remember when the IBM Selectric typewriter with its replaceable type balls was cutting edge because it gives me a deep appreciation for the gifts we have today.

As a small business owner, I understand what it takes to be successful – and what usually falls through the cracks, or holds us back. Over the years, I’ve gathered many useful tips, tricks and just plain wisdom from clients, peers, mentors and industry leaders. I am also a lifelong learner, perennially curious and excited by the many tools now available to help manage it all.

I’ll be sharing these tips, tools and thoughts with you in the hope of making your work easier and your life more balanced.  But don’t worry, it won’t be a bunch of techno-jargon, just easy to understand introductions and overviews (for more in-depth detail, please subscribe to my newsletter) as well as thoughts about life, work, inspiration and anything else that crosses my mind as I journey through my days.

Join me, won’t you?