Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

I have to write about Steve Jobs for a few reasons. First, I'd been thinking about him a lot the past few months because I had problems with my computer and I spent a few full weekends in the Apple store, and I can't go into an Apple store without thinking of him. I mean yes I feel ashamed and inferior  (Steve would be disgusted if he saw the dog hair and cracker crumbs in the keyboard, the greasy smears on the screen) but I also feel inspired and amazed (How did he come up with the way you can make photos bigger and smaller, the way you can open up the battery in the back with a penny, the way everyone in the store seems happy and stylish and intelligent... How did he do that?).

Second, it is because of Steve Jobs that I take a monthly inventory of all the weird seemingly unconnected and random things in my life. I found his famous commencement speech when I was making a book of different inspiring stories for Mo to read when she graduated from college. One thing he talked about is how all your experiences, good or bad, lead you somewhere else, that you shouldn't be afraid to fail or take chances or be miserable because there's always something about them that will connect you to another experience. To the next one. He said "...you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."  For someone who likes to sit around (and possibly waste time) wondering why something happened or what I should have done to prevent it, this was really profound to me, and I heard it like a foghorn.

Last of all I had to write something about him because he was "the inventor" during my lifetime. Because he was fearless and inspirational, and because, even though I knew it was coming, I gasped when I saw his face and the dates below it when I turned on my computer last night. 

 "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
-Steve Jobs