Beer and Wisdom, my attempt at improvised writing and beer consumption. Below are just thoughts sparked during the rare moments of silence in fatherhood. Moments when I can sit, pour a beer and collect my thoughts. Today, I dove a bit into finding genuine information in an era of Information overload.

This year my wife made me a beer advent calendar, in order to properly count down to Christmas. Each window holds a new beer to try. Today’s beer was this New Belgium Tripple ale. It packs a punch at 8.5% ABV and hits the spot on this cold winter night with its smooth yet rich flavor. I write today on a broken keyboard. Apparently, my kids thought the letter “L”, which was forcefully removed from its place, was not a needed letter, but I am finding out it is.

The Era of Information

Tonight, I began to think about the amount of information out there and what we make of it. Many say that we are in a moral dry spell, as more and more people seem to have less moral fortitude. I don’t believe we are less moral than generations before, on the contrary I believe we are over all a better species today than 100 years ago; however, we are different. We now know more about each other than ever before. The good and the bad.

Our current era of information gives everybody and anybody a voice, whether it is one we should listen to or not. Influence is different today. Ages ago, the ones directly around you influenced your actions. The world was much smaller. A man was only as good as their word, not their social media account. Today, that is much different, infuence and information can come from strangers we have never met.

Self help

The self help market is booming. Many social media accounts claim to have the answers needed to improve your quality of life. Many show the account holder to be living a version of the “best life” and over all “crushing it”. Before our era of information, we read the message holder with our very eyes. We gauged who it is they were and decided whether or not to accept the message. Humans are designed in this way, to evaluate the man or women in front of them and call “bullshit” when their actions betrayed their intent. In our era of online information, we can’t see the actions of a person. We cant see who it is they truly are, just who they want us to perceive them to be. Are they genuine? Is this information I can apply to my own life? Or, are they selling snake oil?

Of course, I find myself in a dilemma with this very site. Am I being genuine in my attempts to convey a message? I have found something to be missing in the social media self help arena. To me the most genuine of interactions do not occur online, they occur face to face; however, in the era of information these things seem to be the way of the future. Still we need to tread lightly on what we consume online. Are these posts, words and photos simply empty calories for the soul or can we extract the proper information?

We are defined by action

Ultimately, we are only what our actions defines us as. Intent is no mile marker in the moral race. Great cities were never built on intent alone; however, the right actions over time have done great things. Like those that came before us, we need to interpret the information and separate the wheat from the chaff.

The Box in The living room

In my living room is a box. The wooden box contains hundreds of journals. Within those journals is a series of words from a man I’ve always looked up to. A life’s work done for one reason, to pass on information to those that matter most. I know I am decades away from opening these boxes, yet I look at them daily, knowing within those pages is a story worth sharing with my boys and others. It sparks a thought which is this: the truest words we can speak are those that are said with no promises of recognition. When no one is looking and nothing is promised, we say the things that need to be said and we act in the way which matches those words. We don’t speak these words because they will lead to a tangible benefit, but we speak them because if we didn’t, it would not align with who we are at our core. That, my friends, is genuine and that is something we, as humans, look for in the information which flashes across our screens and lives.

I’ve finished the last sip of this ale. The day has come to an end and I’ve divulged enough information for this session. Tomorrow is a new day. Another shot at writing a story worth passing on.