A business bloke told me today that every year has eight productive months to it. He says take out January (holidays), April (Easter and school holidays), July (movers and shakers flee winter and either mourn or celebrate end of financial year) and, of course, December (obvious reasons).
These observations apply to the real, physical, socio-economic world. Are there similar ups and downs in cyberspace? Dunno. Are there times when wired people are off the air?
Being a latecomer to the e-world and a social activist to boost, I lack savvy in cyber matters.
As someone who hasn't a minute to lose, I'm mildly shocked to find associates and colleagues 'off the air' after 6 pm daily and weekends.
Having no wife, no children makes matters worse. There's no one there to remind me there's no one out there.
They're not cavalry persons en masse waiting for my command 'boots and saddles' before mounting their thoroughbreds, unsheathing their swords and riding into the valley of death like the famous Light Brigade at Sebastopol in the Crimea.
It's my calling, not yours, dear readers, to patrol real and virtual worlds 24/7/52, the real I'm 73 years familiar with. The virtual, quantum leaping, exponentially expanding world I'm not even 10 years familiar with. It's no wonder I use inappropriately and unsuccessfully, the same modus operandi in both worlds.
My predicament will be highlighted on 3JJJ this Sunday night during an interview with Bajo, aka Steve O'Donnell, co-host of 'Good Game', returning on 11 February to ABC2. To my generation, maybe anyone born before 1974, when commercially available computer games first became available. 'Gaming' meant gambling at the local Tabaret.
I'll be shown up as illiterate when Banjo's interviewed by IT savvy, Safron, about an upcoming episode (Good Game) about 'Religious Games'.
No sweat. I'll battle on because I'm convinced these are not the last days except in the sense of 'last days of the world as we know it'. But, then, every day's the last day in that sense.
It's, also, why I try to express my Catholicism as helpful to all. It's meant to add to, not substitute for.
There's a fundamentalist weakness in Catholicism as in all institutions. It's not a fatal flaw, unless unchecked, and it can't reach that level of toxicity because of checks and balances built into Catholicism from day one. Peter's tendency to fundamentalism was balanced by Paul's appetite for universalism.
Sorry, blog readers, to self indulge but these words are meant for parish readers as well as you. AND it's Lent for Catholics till Easter. AND Lent can be wasted or used for good.
Since our South Melbourne Catholic Church is the first suburban expression of Catholicism in Melbourne, we're not a derivative but unique.
We'd like to invite both worlds, real and virtual to 'own' Lent by practising Aussie, lay spirituality - bring your own, do it yourself - do no harm (represented by ashes) do a little good (after ash, become the green!)