“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005
I was a “Mac Girl” way back. But I didn’t get my hands on my very own Mac until 2007! Dave was a PC guy, and being the primary breadwinner, he got to decide. Eventually, I made my own purchase while working at the University where I had tech support in my department. And then our daughter wanted one for college. Dave was all worked up in a frenzy about the cost and one of his tech guys explained to him that it was worth it and why and so eventually he relented.
I love what Steve Jobs created. He was an artist. A visionary. He had a sense of aesthetic. A famous author said that “You don’t need to ask what kind of computer a person has. If they have a Mac they will tell you, if they don’t, why embarrass them?”
PIXAR was Jobs creation in the film industry. An extraordinary company. He liked nice things and while function drives form, form could still be of the highest quality and excellence in its appearance and function. As a very good typist, I will tell you that the keyboards are the best I have ever encountered.
It’s funny, but tonight, of all nights, Dave came home with a Xoom. I said, “What?” A vendor gave it to him. He told me it was a Microsoft tablet, made by Motorola that ran Android Software. I burst into laughter and said, “Oh that’s hilarious!” He looked at me funny and I said, “It took THREE GIANT companies to create a product to compete with the iPad!” He laughed out loud. I made my point, again, which I have been doing for years – being a “Mac girl.”
Of course there is much, much more to Steve Jobs. A boy who was adopted. A man that had a child as a teenager and then much later in life, three more. A recluse. A private man, with few close friends. Someone who had rock star status amongst his following. Many have likened him to Edison and Einstein today in their writings about him. I would have to agree.
But for us, in the world of cancer, he became one of us. Somehow we were all hoping this day wouldn’t come to pass. That if you are bright enough, contributed enough, are rich enough, worthy enough, you will BEAT cancer. YOU WILL WIN!
Sadly, that is not the case and we are reminded that no matter how much money you have, how great your life is, how many lives you have touched, how great your kids are, your job, your life, cancer doesn’t care. It’s an equal opportunity employer. It will strike anywhere, anyhow, anyone, anytime.
My heart goes out to all who knew him as their friend, employer, brother, husband, father, colleague. He will be missed very personally by them, and very profoundly for the rest of us.
You know, today, someone put a cartoon up on FB that showed Jobs arriving to heaven with some guy leaving through a big book and he said, “I have an App for that.” He will be greatly missed.
Long ago I worked on the Commodore Amiga which was touted to be the ‘real’ time share machine and I loved it. I had used PC’s and Apples, but the Amiga was my dream machine. I was angry when it was clear that Commodore didn’t have the financial support to compete between the other two and it fell by the wayside and I had to give up and make a choice for my next machine.
I went with the PC side for several decades because it was the system I used at work and it was an easy process to come home and continue my computing.
Oddly enough it was my trip out to Seattle to be with my relative who would be diagnosed the next year with MM that turned me away from PC and I bought my first MacBook. I love it. And it was that year that Jobs announced his dx so as I type this I feel a deep sadness that the man who has made my life more delightful with this machine has been called to the other side. Do you think God had any idea of how Steve would take the Apple concept and evolve it from His original event? And do you think He has plans to work with Steve to improve heaven? Just wonderin’…