- Editor's note: Beth Bales is taking a week off to check off some items on her holiday to-do list. So we're re-publishing a few of her previous columns this week. This one originally ran on Oct. 6, 2011, which is more recent than most of our "Best of Beth" selections. But with Christmas shopping season in full swing and visions of Apples dancing in some folks' heads, we thought it might be appropriate to re-gift this one as Beth's "holiday special" tribute to Steve Jobs.
When the world found out in February 1999 that Walter Payton needed a liver transplant, I was not particularly moved. It just didn’t pertain much to my life. Then, a few weeks later, film critic Gene Siskel died. “I am so very, very sad,” I told my husband when he delivered the news. “That’s the way other people feel about Walter Payton,” he said, mildly, but with import that has stuck all these years.
That sadness I felt when Siskel died doesn’t BEGIN to cover how I felt when my middle daughter, the child who loves all things Apple, who convinced me that giving her dad an iPad for Christmas would be a fabulous, if extravagant gift, who couldn’t wait to order the MacBook she received for her high school graduation, called Wednesday night to tell me, “Well, I suppose you heard Steve Jobs died.”
Well, no, until she called I had not. I’d ignored the texts I’d received on my phone (an iPhone, of course!), because we were eating dinner and I pretty much ban all texting during meals. I’ll answer phone calls during dinner, but only to say, “we’re eating dinner; can I call you back?” But in this case, the daughter calling (each of my three girls has her own ringtone) was writing a tax paper and awaiting my edits and I thought the call pertained to that. (And please! My edits were for grammar. Her aunt, Ms. CPA, was double-checking the tax stuff.)
It was fitting she delivered the news, instead of my hearing it via the texts which were, indeed, about his death.
Steve Jobs is dead. It’s hardly surprising news, but it’s very sad. He was a visionary. I’ve always put him in the same exclusive category as Walt Disney, another true visionary, two people who see the world in a completely different way, who envision things as they could be, and then make that happen. Had they lived together, a neat trick of the space/time continuum, as the saying goes, can you IMAGINE the magic they might have made? I cannot. But I do mourn what might have been.
Our transition to an Apple household was gradual and came about by happenstance. My husband and I took over payments for an Apple my dad purchased through the Batavia School District (he was a teacher) after he died in 1991. I never looked back. I never wanted to. I never will. That’s somewhat easier to do when you’re self-employed, as I have been for nearly 20 years, though I also work outside the home, part-time now, and do manage to navigate my Windows machine there.
When it was new, and the only such store in the Chicago suburbs, I regarded the Woodfield Apple store as the promised land. In fact, I got up early one New Year’s Day to check it out for the first time with Apple-loving buddy Larry Furnish of Geneva, IL. Our spouses thought we were crazy. We were not.
We are a household with five iPhones, five iPods (besides older ones now retired but still in drawers somewhere) three MacBooks, two iMacs, one iPad and one Apple TV. The kid who doesn’t have a Mac laptop? She wishes she did.
My mind returns time and again to Steve Jobs’ remarkable vision of a world of possibilities, of a different way of interacting with electronics. Who’d have known 10 years ago I would use my iPhone, and the navigation system on it, to find my way home from a neighborhood in north Mill Creek, when I’d gotten myself completely turned around (yes, that’s actually true ...) Who’d have known that the camera in a phone would be good enough that I frequently use it to take photos for Patch? Who’d have guessed 10 years ago that I’d leave a movie and, while still in the car in the parking lot, use my phone to access the Internet Movie Database site, via its iPhone app, to find out who played the daughter of the Brad Pitt character in Moneyball and have the answer before we hit Route 64? (My husband was driving, never fear.) Who’d have known, 10 years ago, that doctors would utilize iPads, that ... so many things?
Well, Steve Jobs would. And did.
In the midst of our own sorrow, let us not forget he leaves behind a wife and four children, whose pain is deep, and personal, and ever-lasting.
Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs. You changed the world.
And to J Van who commented above: if you don't approve of "conspicuous consumption" then don't buy the products. You are showing that you are a hypocrite. If anyone can afford an "i" device or anything else it's THEIR business. Consumption means people have jobs and pay taxes.
Let's hope that when any of us passes to the pearly gates we are remembered for the totality of our lives. Let's pray that our "balance sheet" has more positives than negatives and we all leave people with good memories. Few of us will leave as many people "impressed" with us as Steve Jobs!
America has indeed lost one of if not the the most incredible pioneers of our generation. Steve we will miss you but smile with each phone call and everytime we watch and use our ipad, ipod or itunes. I remember when he had a vision that all things Apple would be part of the i family!
I've been using Apple computers since 1986 or so. I have a Mac SE (8 Meg. hard drive, one floppy slot) in the basement. It's a $5000 door stop but by golly, it still works. I'm typing this on my iMac. I'm 73 and grew up before there was television but can't imagine life today without igadgets. I have always found it interesting that the major software company that dominates the market today has an inferior product and has copied Apple time and again rather than leading. There is one major difference between Walt disney and Steve Jobs, I think. Disney was famous for scaring the heck out of little kids (evil queens, fires, etc.) Jobs created a world in which kids feel very comfortable but scares the heck out of us old timers.
One act of indiscretion does not make "Poor Father." He contested it but then put the kid through Harvard.
"Here's to the Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world - are the ones who DO!"
Zen Beliefs and Practices Both the words "Zen" (Japanese) and "Ch'an" (Chinese) derive from the Sanskrit word Dhyana, meaning "meditation." Zen Buddhism focuses on attaining enlightenment (bodhi) through meditation as Siddharta Gautama did. It teaches that all human beings have the Buddha-nature, or the potential to attain enlightenment, within them, but the Buddha-nature been clouded by ignorance. To overcome this ignorance, Zen rejects the study of scriptures, religious rites, devotional practices, and good works in favor of meditation leading to a sudden breakthrough of insight and awareness of ultimate reality. Training in the Zen path is usually undertaken by a disciple under the guidance of a master. So call me a troll He did not believe in God or a higher power or helping anyone He was a narcissistic that only believed in helping himself those are merely the facts not my opinion Sorry if it offends you.
Let's see, Steve Jobs created tools that help us access the world's information in an instant, that allows us to communicate face to face with loved ones quickly and easily no matter where they are, that brings us pleasure, challenge, and productivity that were not dreamed of fifty years ago. He gave us tools that allow us to create more than we ever thought possible. He sacrificed all semblance of a "normal" life, family, vacations, down time, and perhaps even his life (extreme stress has been linked to some forms of cancer) in order to achieve his goals. And you say he helped only himself? We cannot know his motives, nor are they important. His body of work speaks for itself. You seem to imply that in order to be a "good" person one must believe in God or a higher power. Sorry Rudy but I think that your last paragraph is indeed your opinion.
That said, we have no idea what Steve Jobs has done from a charitable standpoint. He may have done scads of things of which we are unaware. And, in the long run, my point was all about his genius, in terms of imagination, vision and artistry, all intersecting with technology. Mostly, Bill Gates (even with his philanthropic bent) is still just a wonk.
Wow. I'll say it again, there is just enough religon in the world to make men hate one another but not enough to make them love or respect. Sad.
That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again. - Steve Jobs Do I give a damn about his personal life? No, and neither should you.