Mobility Generation: A Father’s Day Epistle
My daughter graduated middle school this week. Sitting in the warm gym, listening to a very articulate 8th grader deliver the commencement address, I found my mind wandering down other paths. Traditionally, I think, this was the moment when flashbacks of your little girl as a baby come to mind: digging out our driveway in Connecticut in her first psychedelic snowsuit; in a mask and fins in Maui pointing at a colorful butterfly fish 10 feet under the surface; bouncing in a tube along Lake Tahoe behind a motorboat. It was that classic moment in every father’s life when Jerry Garcia’s Touch of Grey hits home.
“It’s a lesson to me
The deltas and the east and the freeze
The ABC’s we all think of
Try to give a little love.”
When Cathren went to middle school, she decided to enroll in a laptop program. Before the year started, I visited the school to meet with the IT staff, and found some random Access Points scattered around a few classrooms. This would not do at all. Within 3 weeks, a brand new series of Airespace controllers and 60 Lightweight Access Points painted the campus in a seamless and invisible carpet of secure RF. If they were going to explore wireless, I proudly thought, then they need to fly business class!
Over the past 3 years I watched my daughter develop as a student and as a woman, and now realize she is my great prototype for the Mobility Generation. Equipped with laptop, cell phone, i-Pod and an innate desire to learn, she Googles her way through life and school, making strong friendships and nailing down a 4.0 GPA (ok, it’s Father’s Day; I’m proud). This latter point always amazed me, as she seems to be connected to her friends through Instant Messenger and her dreams through ITunes, all the while she did her homework, her honors projects and organized her social life ALL AT THE SAME TIME. With far few distractions, I never managed to produce the grades and quality of work she shows. So what was going on here?
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Ron Ricci, Cisco’s great positioning genius, and we talked about how the generation coming through school can be totally connected to the world through mobility devices, yet still have “great moments of concentration.” Clearly my daughter’s generation can use all of this technology to harness thought and action, feeling empowered by mobility, rather than overwhelmed by it. To wit, see the raft of new books on how to “unplug” your life. To those people, I offer a Bronx cheer: the Ozzie and Harriet view of technology will leave your children in the dustbin of history.
Having a self-organized, self-disciplined and focused daughter, what, as a father, can I provide in terms of life’s lessons, as she already knows how to steer her through the interconnected networks of the world? In the words of William Butler Yeats in his great “Prayer for My Daughter,” I could share but one lesson this Father’s Day:
“In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned”
Happy Father’s Day gentle readers.
Alan
W.B. Yeats
“Prayer for My Daughter”
Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind.
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.
I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And-under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-legged smith for man.
It’s certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of plenty is undone.
In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise.
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
W.B. Yeats
“A Prayer for My Son”
Bid a strong ghost stand at the head
That my Michael may sleep sound,
Nor cry, nor turn in the bed
Till his morning meal come round;
And may departing twilight keep
All dread afar till morning’s back.
That his mother may not lack
Her fill of sleep.
Bid the ghost have sword in fist:
Some there are, for I avow
Such devilish things exist,
Who have planned his murder, for they know
Of some most haughty deed or thought
That waits upon his future days,
And would through hatred of the bays
Bring that to nought.
Though You can fashion everything
From nothing every day, and teach
The morning stars to sing,
You have lacked articulate speech
To tell Your simplest want, and known,
Wailing upon a woman’s knee,
All of that worst ignominy
Of flesh and bone;
And when through all the town there ran
The servants of Your enemy,
A woman and a man,
Unless the Holy Writings lie,
Hurried through the smooth and rough
And through the fertile and waste,
protecting, till the danger past,
With human love.
“Touch of Grey”
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Must be getting early
Clocks are running late
Paint by number morning sky
Looks so phony
Dawn is breaking everywhere
Light a candle, curse the glare
Draw the curtains
I don’t care ‘cause
It’s all right
I will get by / I will get by
I will get by / I will survive
I see you’ve got your list out
Say your piece and get out
Yes I get the gist of it
but it’s all right
Sorry that you feel that way
The only thing there is to say
Every silver lining’s got a
Touch of grey
I will get by / I will get by
I will get by / I will survive
It’s a lesson to me
The Ables and the Bakers and the C’s
The ABC’s we all must face
And try to keep a little grace
It’s a lesson to me
The deltas and the east and the freeze
The ABC’s we all think of
Try to give a little love.
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It’s even worse than it appears
but it’s all right.
Cows giving kerosene
Kid can’t read at seventeen
The words he knows are all obscene
but it’s all right
I will get by / I will get by
I will get by / I will survive
The shoe is on the hand it fits
There’s really nothing much to it
Whistle through your teeth and spit
causeit’s all right.
Oh well a Touch Of Grey
Kind of suits you anyway.
That was all I had to say
It’s all right.
I will get by / I will get by
I will get by / I will survive
We will get by / We will get by
We will get by / We will survive
Posted by Alan Cohen at 11:04AM PST
: Mobile Visions Oct 5, 2006
The Long Tail of Mobility: Connecting A Trillion Devices on the Human Network http://www.appearnetworks.com/ In his book on changing economics of web commerce, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson illustrates how the Internet is changing the laws of distribution from digital products from entertainment (movies and CDs) to manufactured ...