Bolstered by the secure middle class upbringing by our parents, charged by our changing the world of fashion, music and the arts and buoyed by the belief that we were changing the world for the better, it was easy to believe that we would live in a world unfettered with the mundane.
Currently, in this age of darkness, it's hard to believe that we were that naive, but it is true. We thought that we would be able to have work that would be satisfying and lucrative, that we would marry beautiful people and create healthy and happy children who would live in an unbiased and peaceful world.
Seriously, for a few years, we really thought that way.
Add a few assassinations, Altamont, music heroes dying from substance abuse, Vietnam, Watergate, Middle East and, voila! Here we are, broke, beaten and downhearted in the 21st Century. What happened to those dreams?
Somebody once said that, "It was impossible to connect the dots [of your life] looking forward… But it was very, very clear looking backwards… you can only connect them looking backwards."
In other words, when you look back at your life and all the decisions you made, you come to the obvious conclusion you are exactly at the point of your life you are supposed to be.
Those words were spoken by Steve Jobs, the heart and soul of the Apple phenomenon.
Steve Jobs passed away last night from the great equalizer of our lives, cancer. Steve Jobs was a very young 56 years old.
The AP lede today was, "Steve Jobs saw the future and led the world to it. He moved technology from garages to pockets, took entertainment from discs to bytes and turned gadgets into extensions of the people who use them."
What struck me when "I heard the news today, oh boy!" was this: Steve Jobs really was the guy we thought we could all become. Seemingly, he was the only one.
Steve Jobs was a visionary, an artist and an entrepreneur. He believed that machines should be functional and that they should work for us and not the other way around. It may be hard to believe, but before Steve and Woz (Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder) built the Mac, we were entering code to make our computer work. It was Jobs who saw the potential that, just by pointing, clicking and dragging, it would open the door to the ubiquitous use of the computer.
Steve lived the life that all of us wanted our lives to be centered on. His work was satisfying, lucrative and made the world a better place. Apple products were functional, people friendly and stylish. To use the phrase from that bygone era, Apple products were and are, cool. Hopefully, Steve's soul has been infused into Apple and the products they produce in the future still will be. We owe that to him.
If not for Steve Jobs, I would not be writing these words and putting them on the internet. If I had been forced to learn commands to get this job done, it wouldn't have been done.
"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Steve Jobs knew what it took to get millions like me into this computer thing. He changed the way we look at computers, "the bicycles of the mind" he called them, and thus he changed the world. One guy with one idea.
Steve Jobs was the guy we all thought we would be in 1968. Fortunately, for us, he was. Unfortunately, for us, he seems to be the only one.
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