I'm Just Saying...

A good friend of mine writes a semi-regular blog, which he always signs with the words: "I'm Just Sayin..."

I've always liked this, because it implies that--whether you agree with me or not--I'm just saying what things look like from my side of the fence.

You'll want to keep that in mind as you read the rest of this post.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol: "Steve Jobs was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner."

Please understand, I'm not being sarcastic, or insensitive here. The man died of pancreatic cancer. If you don't know anything about it, it's an awful way to die. In addition, he was, by most accounts, a nice person who didn't appear to deserve to have his life shortened in this way.

He was also an amazingly brilliant person. The things he invented were far beyond the scope of most people's imagination. And, speaking as a woman who has problems putting the AC cord in right side up when she is plugging in her hair dryer, believe me when I say, I am NOT minimizing the technological contributions he made to society. Some would say he may have invented technological contributions. None of this is lost on me.

My husband and I started our marriage in the Silicon Valley when Jobs' star was rising in the heavens. My husband even worked putting together an early Jobsian computer model that went out with 8-track tapes. Ever hear of the "Lisa?" Yeah, neither did many other people, but it was a model that existed, way back when--allegedly named for an old girlfriend of his.

All this to say that I am not a stranger to the cradle of technology or what it has given us.

But, I've been watching the memorials of Steve that have been popping up throughout the media.

And, I smell worship.

Steve Jobs invented machines. He was not pulling people out of burning buildings. He was not carrying water to them. He was not up all night, struggling with the issues of life and death and salvation. This was not person to person interaction. Those machines may have assisted in a lot of charitable and philanthropic efforts, but they were machines. In the words of one of my favorite young adults: He wasn't Mother Teresa.

I worry because a lot of people are mourning him. Sorrowfully. Yet I know for a fact that these are the same people who wouldn't be too shaken up if their neighbor down the street had died of pancreatic cancer. Or even a distant, obscure relative.

People are mourning him because they felt they knew him.

Why is that such a problem for me? Because we relate more today with machines and those who bring them to us, than we do to the people around us. The people who we really DO know and are actually a part of our lives.

Steve Jobs was our hero because he invented machines and machines are wonderfully safe. They have the magic power to keep us more and more anonymous in this world. Instead of going next door to see someone face to face, I can just text them Heck, I can text my daughter in the next bedroom and never have to talk to her either! Machines keep us protected and insulated---and unknown. And this seems to be what we all aspire to.

Steve Jobs helped make those things possible, and that is why he was a media nova. He and others like him, were part of the great wave that is pushing us farther and farther apart from each other, on the pretense of bringing us closer and closer together. No, I'm not ignorant enough to blame all this on him. But, when I hear the mourning, I hear the strains of worship.

Worship that I'm thinking should be going somewhere else.

And somewhere, far in the background, I also hear a Toby Mac song playing.

And the refrain goes: "I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul."

Someone very important said that a long time ago.

I'm just saying.