I’m Just Going To Leave This Right Here: The Password Edition

So much of our lives today revolve around connecting to a world that resides online. It is amazing to consider how mankind struggled for centuries to share what they had come to know with those who would follow them. Then through hard work and ingenuity we end up with the capability of having so much information at our fingertips in a mere matter of moments. Amazing. And, scary, too. We sure have a lot of smart people today who became that way by searching and finding answers, legitimately or that supported their already held beliefs. I am not sure how many people we have now though who use what they learn to become more than just a repository of facts, but, I digress.

In seemingly every way imaginable anymore, we can connect to something online for some type of portal that houses personal information. In order to do this, we have to use passwords to protect ourselves. This small string of letters and/or numbers becomes the entry way into this information so it becomes apparent that this password is extremely important.

In the early days, passwords were easy to recall. There weren’t many to remember. Nowadays, though, there are literally dozens to remember. Some sites require some letters and some numbers in the password sequence. Some ask that part of the password be capitalized. Some systems make you change your password after a given set of time. At some point I was so overwhelmed with sites that I needed to have passwords for that I acquired a password manager account. This allowed me to store all my passwords in one safe, secure place. Then when I could not remember my account name or password to order from Pizza Hut, I could look it up on the password manager. That worked for about a month. Then I forgot the master password into the password manager account.

Maybe you feel my pain as well. Understand that when I go to work I usually have to type in five different passwords before I can really sit down to do anything worthwhile for my employer. To order something online, to check on our daughter’s progress at school, to look over our checkbook account balance all require passwords. Somedays I sit down at a keyboard and type in an old password then wonder when I changed this particular password. Other times I sit down at a keyboard and it takes me a half-minute to process through which site I need to log in to then to process which password matches it. It can be frustrating, confusing and maddening.

If you feel the same as I do when it comes to passwords, maybe I can help alleviate your suffering. Spend a few minutes with a couple of brothers who have worked hard on this password issue. If they are unable to help you, and I am guessing they probably won’t, maybe you will at the bare minimum get a chuckle out of this crazy world where we live that seems at times to be so dominated by passwords. I’m just going to leave this right here in case you need it. No password required.

"What's The Password?"

Contrast

A few days ago during the middle of the day the moon passed between the earth and the sun. It was a rarity for our times, a solar eclipse.

In the weeks leading to this moment, news reporters urged caution when viewing the eclipse. Entrepreneurs manufactured, sold and distributed special glasses which allowed a person to look at the eclipse without damaging said person’s eyes. Some glasses were high quality, others seemed no better than a toy pair of 3-D glasses stuck into a kid’s meal at a fast food drive-thru window.

Schools, tasked with educating children, took this opportunity to close for the day. Personal injury liability seemed to outweigh an occasion to, pardon the pun, enlighten students willing to learn about this once-in-a-lifetime moment. Businesses then scrambled to remain open for the day because parents had to be at home with children.

For the good time gang it became one more reason to celebrate with longneck barbells, a ready-made party opportunity. For the conspiratorially-minded, it became a possible moment when Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Bermuda triangle and little green men from Mars would come together to create havoc. Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly-voiced vocalist from the 1970s and 1980s even emerged from the shadows to sing her thirty-four year old over-the-top pop hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

On the roads, traffic became thicker than normal. Small towns in the direct path of the eclipse were overrun with out-of-towners some of whom snobbishly wondered how anyone could ever live in a place like this. Overall, people seemed even more on edge which covers a great deal of ground since the world where we live is so hyper-sensitive about every little thing these days.

And then, for a brief time, in the middle of the day, the world slowed down and things grew dark.

Light, then dark.

An eerie, thick veil crept onto the scene. Crescent moon shadows touched the ground. Lightning bugs flitted about shining a light here then there. Roosters crowed at 2:30 in the afternoon. Street lights, triggered by darkness, illuminated the dark during the day.

The contrast from moments before was obvious. The darkest point only lasted a short time but in that time when light turned to darkness that contrast was as obvious as, well, day and night.

Then the darkness turned back to light.

For a moment, I searched for a rationale to the event. I contemplated what it all meant beyond the sun, the moon and the earth getting in each other’s way.

Some might say such matters are much more complicated than what they seem on the surface.

Really? Light then dark then light again.

Really?

John 1:5

Close Your Eyes

Sometimes I close my eyes when I hear good news. Often this is accompanied with a rush of relief, maybe a fist pump and a low, confident, “Yes!”

Sometimes I close my eyes when I hear bad news. I sometimes then shake my head a time or two before mumbling, “Oh no.”

Sometimes I close my eyes just to soak in the sun. The super-sized light beams down warmth onto my face so I can drink in the energy.

Sometimes I close my eyes to think deeper about something rattling around between my ears or perhaps knocking against the sides of my heart. I seem to be searching for a missing part of some puzzle when this happens.

Sometimes I close my eyes when they are tired. On days when I have put the two of them through lots of reading, analyzing, stress and strain just closing them seems like a preview of the rest that will do them, and me, good.

Sometimes I close my eyes when I can’t keep them open anymore for the day. Rest finally calls so I give in to that safe feeling of slumber.

Sometimes I close my eyes unsure of why. It is always good to receive a reminder when that happens.

Her two tiny arms wrapped around my neck squeezing so hard I thought she might collapse in her effort. My arms dwarfed her small body as I used a bit of restraint to hug her just tight enough to not break anything. As she pulled away from me, she asked, “Do you close your eyes when you hug me?”

I smiled in reply, “Yes, I do.” She looked at me as if she were thinking of what it all meant. I prodded her, “What does it mean when someone closes their eyes when they hug you?”

Without hesitation, she replied, “It means someone loves you more than anything else in the world.”

Again, I smiled then said, “I think you are right.”