One, Your’s or My…

Reality.… That’s the question I’ve been pondering today.

There have been recent advances in Quantum Physics that suggest, that what we perceive as reality, is, in fact just a collective perception that may bear no resemblance to what is in fact reality.

That the reality we see, the world, universe and so on is nothing more than the way our minds have processed the information our senses have relayed to it. That our brains, in giving us back our reality only use about 2,000 out of 20,000,000,000 bits of information. That leaves an awful lot of information unaccounted for. Actually not unaccounted for, as these same scientists say we’re storing it all, we’re just not using it all.

While all that is interesting, the most interesting thing to me is how our perceptions actually affect our lives, our bodies physiologically. One scientist has photographed water molecules after taping labels to the containers. Purportedly, the molecules changed shape due to the messages. I found that a bit of a stretch in that some of the other tests used what I’d consider subjective measures. Like classical vs. heavy metal music that were said to produce similar results.

I think it’s this (the water crystal experiment) type of pseudo science that can prevent us from seeing the possibilities that knowing our perceptions shape our realties presents.

Think for just a moment, about your life as it is, right now, today.

Then think for more than a moment on the types of thoughts that dominate your day.

Is your life, in line with those thoughts, or radically different than them? I’m guessing your life, like mine, is very much in line with the thoughts you have.

If your thoughts are in line with what you’re experiencing in life, are the thoughts a result of your life, or, is your life a result of your thoughts?

I say, it doesn’t matter.

If you agree, that having a bad day finds you thinking bad (or negative) thoughts, why then couldn’t it also be true that thinking good (or positive) thoughts couldn’t find you having a great day?

It’s a process, though, it doesn’t change over night. But it does change. You didn’t always have negative thoughts, or bad days. When we’re young, the world is an amazing place, full of wonder, new and exciting experiences. We were learning then, touching, smelling, tasting… almost everything that came close to us. We’d climb trees because we’d not yet taken a fall that stopped us yet. We were blissfully unaware of danger, and lived in a world without fear.

Over time though, we experience setbacks, injuries, broken hearts, fractured careers and on and on. We also experience many very good things, but, for some reason, for most of us, it’s those negative experiences that serve to shape our thinking.

I suppose it’s a good thing in many respects. Learning not to place our hands on a hot stove for example, is a good thing. Not living our dreams however, because we’re stuck on a less than stellar result 10 years, 5 weeks or 5 minutes ago, is not a good thing.

I’ve talked before about control, and how it’s an illusion at best. I’m here to tell you today, that for most of us, ‘positive thinking’ can be just as big an illusion as well. Often, we believe we’re thinking ‘positive’, when what’s really going on is that we’re thinking positively on the surface. Underneath, we’ve got all sorts of doubts, second thoughts and what I call “saboteurs” going on.

I’ve had a real ‘roller coaster’ of events over the past few weeks. There have been some real wonderful ‘ups’, and some very, very low, ‘downs’.

So I’ve been pondering… Pondering where some of this stuff is coming from, what’s brought this stuff my way. First, I have to take my Mom’s health out of the equation. That’s really happening to her, not me. My role is to show her love, and support, as she and Andy work through this.

Once I take that out, there have been an amazing series of events. Most I’ve told you about, some I can’t tell you about yet as they’re still in the discussion stages. One I will mention happened Friday night.

I got a call Friday night from a guy in Singapore. He’s gotten my name from a fellow I’d gotten an inquiry from on one of my websites (on Friday morning!). It turns out he’s looking for a few ‘mentors’. Seventeen people nationwide to be exact, each with the background and skills to teach young promising developers how to develop systems in Visual FoxPro.

The group he’s interested in me mentoring will be centered at Duke University, which is about 30 minutes from here, and in between my home and the project I’m working on.

That call was significant to me on two fronts. First, it was extremely flattering to be recommended for consideration. More importantly though, it’s what this guy is trying to do that really impressed me. He’s looking to build his own recruiting candidates, versed in Visual FoxPro, mentored (in his words) by some of the best in the country to fill his company’s need for qualified developers.

Visual FoxPro (or more specifically FoxPro) was once the predominant database development environment for PC’s. It’s been sliding from the perch since Microsoft bought the company in the early 90’s. The developer community, for the most part, will tell you its all Microsoft’s fault. I’ve been saying for years, to anyone who would listen, that it’s up to us, the developers, to be the evangelists the product needs.

So here, on the phone, Friday night, from halfway around the world is a guy who’s trying to do just that. Sure, he’s got a personal, profit based, motive, but so does anyone who considers themselves a FoxPro developer.

So, the question I’m pondering is, “what are the odds this guy would find me?” I’m a relatively obscure developer; he’d never read this blog or been to my websites before talking to the fellow who referred me. Sure, there was a time when I was ‘fab’, but as I’ve chronicled here before, that was over a decade ago.

Was it my unfailing belief that Visual FoxPro (or VFP as many call it) remains the single most flexible development environment? My perception that nothing I’ve seen or worked with is better? The reality I envision where VFP makes a stellar comeback in spite of Microsoft’s reluctance to give it the same kind of push it gives .Net?

I don’t really have an answer to all of that. I choose to believe though, that it’s this kind of thinking that brings many things to my plate that I would otherwise normally never see. So, once again I’m going to warn you, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!

Technorati Tags: Visual FoxPro - VFP - Perception - Positive Thinking
-IceRocket Tags: Visual FoxPro - VFP - Perception - Positive Thinking