Maybe I found religion after all?
Originally posted to jays.net (blosxom) on 2005-11-23.
I've been awake since 4am, staring at the ceiling or sitting up in bed pondering. This is quite unusual, as I am quite good at sleeping and only fail to deliver once or twice a year, on average. Two main streams of consciousness (SOCs) are haunting me this morning. In cronological order:
[SOC #1] See 90% Savings Through Open Source journal entry above.
[SOC #2] It struck me this morning how my parents are involved with a Christian church and I'm attracted to and involved in open source for many of the same reasons:
- A sense of contributing to the greater good. They give money to their church, we give money to Mercy Corp and I donate to various open source projects. In both cases we're motivated by the belief that we're contributing to the embetterment of the state of the universe. Mercy Corp aside, my contributions are computer geeky and theirs are "pizza church" and the like: face to face interaction with humans' various emotional states. (Wow, I do talk like an emotionless drone a lot, don't I? -laugh-) Self worth through contribution. Mom used a phrase on the phone the other day, but I forgot it. I'll try to remember to ask her.
- A sense of community. Often their community experience is concrete, local, face to face. Much of my equivalent time is spent in emails, websites, servers, the occasional IM, the occasional geek conference. I readily admit I would welcome the chance to do what I do physically in the same room with the other humans who are chasing the same projects on occasion. Not all the time, to be sure, but occasionally would be great. The local user groups I'm involved with are probably me reaching towards their model, only the subject is computery junk and the like, not God.