As a miracle rescue unfolds in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, spare a thought not only of the two men who at this stage are believed to be in good condition, but also for the community for whom this calamity has been their focus for five days.
Clinging to the remotest hope that the miners could be found alive, family, friends, colleagues, rescue service people and everyone linked to this mining town community have desperately held out for any news.
Even as rocks are being removed and rescuers inch closer to the surviving miners, the community craves news, reports and updates - information.
Letting people know and ending the anguish is almost as important as rescuing the men.
The miracle is not just in their survival and rescue. It's also in the spirit of a community, joined by millions via information channels.
We will, no doubt, be deluged in media coverage of this miracle. Squillions of hits on websites will follow. And is it not about time we all had a news story to celebrate and give thanks for?
God bless the survivors, the rescuers and the global community now linked by this story... and thanks for the fact that we will have all the information we want about this miracle.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Blog your way to recovery
Imagine the scenario. You have survived a serious car accident. You are in hospital for an extended stay – surgeries, physio, medication and extensive healing required.
Amidst your pain and treatment, your hospital carer sets you up with a patient blog site.
If it was me in the body brace and bandages, I suspect the last thing I would be thinking about is sharing my thoughts on a blog.
Well this is the reality for a dear friend, Michelle in a hospital in Fargo North Dakota, USA
Clever people these hospital carers. One way or another, Michelle gets her “story” out and so begins the Internet element of her healing.
A not-for-profit organisation called CaringBridge, inspired by personal tragedy, has made it possible for 38,000 hospital patients to receive five million guest book messages and 235 million virtual visits. Who knows how significant millions of expressions of love and support for people at one of their lowest points of their life could be?
Instant virtual community of friends and family are connected via her site, and all are able to keep up-to-date and in some way participate in her recovery.
My friend Michelle has received hundreds of messages. She has a long way to go in her recovery, and her CaringBridge site will be part of it via her individual journal, guestbook, photos, tributes and links.
Amidst your pain and treatment, your hospital carer sets you up with a patient blog site.
If it was me in the body brace and bandages, I suspect the last thing I would be thinking about is sharing my thoughts on a blog.Well this is the reality for a dear friend, Michelle in a hospital in Fargo North Dakota, USA
Clever people these hospital carers. One way or another, Michelle gets her “story” out and so begins the Internet element of her healing.
A not-for-profit organisation called CaringBridge, inspired by personal tragedy, has made it possible for 38,000 hospital patients to receive five million guest book messages and 235 million virtual visits. Who knows how significant millions of expressions of love and support for people at one of their lowest points of their life could be?
Instant virtual community of friends and family are connected via her site, and all are able to keep up-to-date and in some way participate in her recovery.
My friend Michelle has received hundreds of messages. She has a long way to go in her recovery, and her CaringBridge site will be part of it via her individual journal, guestbook, photos, tributes and links.
Friday, April 28, 2006
ANZACS and Living in a TRADITIONAL Internet Age
We just celebrated – if that’s the right word – ANZAC Day in Australia (April 25), a day that is not only the most universally acknowledged national holiday in Australia (quite a few people have issues with “Australia day”), but one that continues to attract cross generational appeal.
The story of incredible loss and sacrifice combined with courage and a barely understood quality called Aussie mateship gave rise to the ANZAC spirit. It took another world war and more than twenty years before a fledgling tradition was claimed.
Those who were there at the time remember. Those who grew up with the aforementioned and heard the stories honour them. Those who are not connected by family links to ANZACS have learned to respect what it all means. And now, two or three generations on, ANZAC Day is a time-honoured tradition.
As my first post, and with respect, hopefully not my last post, I have been wondering what it takes to establish a time-honoured tradition. For many, the concept of Internet time has changed the reference points for time. We have come to expect information, goods and services, relationships, transactions, education, negotiations, consultations, aggregations and almost every other *ation to be available instantly. The concept of delayed gratification is academic or even quaint.
This is not a rant about Internet time, just a slowly cooked opinion that time and tradition are NOT relative terms, nor can either be hurried up. We live in an age that readily dismisses traditions or traditional approaches, yet one that desperately wants to establish them. I’ve heard the qualifier “traditionally” applied to sporting teams with barely a decade of history, to TV talent shows after three consecutive seasons (can anyone name our first three Australian Idols), and even to computer operating systems (ahh Windows 3.x).
Will any of our stories of today become true traditions? What will the benchmark for “time-honoured” be? My guess is that we will find tenuous links being made to or claimed as traditions. On a global scale, traditions can be established as quickly as a major act of terrorism or some natural catastrophe occurs.
But tradition is not a currency easily acquired. While the Internet, and especially Web 2.x offers us who are blessed to live in a free and technology accessible nation the chance to share it, learn it and even influence it a little, I just wonder what traditions we will leave behind us.
Perhaps in a generation or two, people will be reading these blogs in the same way we flick through our grandparents’ letters or diaries from a bygone time.
For any traditionalist who happens to land on this blog, hang in there, grab on to your seat, enjoy the ride, and know that YOUR knowledge of time-honoured tradition can not be overtaken. Who knows, it might be up to you to pass on the tradition.
Let’s hope it’s not only by blog or email.
The story of incredible loss and sacrifice combined with courage and a barely understood quality called Aussie mateship gave rise to the ANZAC spirit. It took another world war and more than twenty years before a fledgling tradition was claimed.
Those who were there at the time remember. Those who grew up with the aforementioned and heard the stories honour them. Those who are not connected by family links to ANZACS have learned to respect what it all means. And now, two or three generations on, ANZAC Day is a time-honoured tradition.
As my first post, and with respect, hopefully not my last post, I have been wondering what it takes to establish a time-honoured tradition. For many, the concept of Internet time has changed the reference points for time. We have come to expect information, goods and services, relationships, transactions, education, negotiations, consultations, aggregations and almost every other *ation to be available instantly. The concept of delayed gratification is academic or even quaint.
This is not a rant about Internet time, just a slowly cooked opinion that time and tradition are NOT relative terms, nor can either be hurried up. We live in an age that readily dismisses traditions or traditional approaches, yet one that desperately wants to establish them. I’ve heard the qualifier “traditionally” applied to sporting teams with barely a decade of history, to TV talent shows after three consecutive seasons (can anyone name our first three Australian Idols), and even to computer operating systems (ahh Windows 3.x).
Will any of our stories of today become true traditions? What will the benchmark for “time-honoured” be? My guess is that we will find tenuous links being made to or claimed as traditions. On a global scale, traditions can be established as quickly as a major act of terrorism or some natural catastrophe occurs.
But tradition is not a currency easily acquired. While the Internet, and especially Web 2.x offers us who are blessed to live in a free and technology accessible nation the chance to share it, learn it and even influence it a little, I just wonder what traditions we will leave behind us.
Perhaps in a generation or two, people will be reading these blogs in the same way we flick through our grandparents’ letters or diaries from a bygone time.
For any traditionalist who happens to land on this blog, hang in there, grab on to your seat, enjoy the ride, and know that YOUR knowledge of time-honoured tradition can not be overtaken. Who knows, it might be up to you to pass on the tradition.
Let’s hope it’s not only by blog or email.
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