a room with a view
I’m typing this from the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle Washington. It’s a beautiful hotel – elegant and stylish with textures of wood and marble. It’s very well done. Staying here makes me feel important.
I’m here because of a Partner Advisory Council that Microsoft hosts twice a year. I get together with a couple dozen peers from around the world to meet with Microsoft, get an early preview of what’s coming, and influence their strategy for Collaboration and Portals. It’s exclusive. Participating makes me feel important. Better yet, telling other people that I participate makes me feel important.
I don’t like this about myself. I don’t like that these externals have the power to affect my self worth in any way.
I would often stay in nice five star hotels during my trips to India. They were not dissimilar to the hotel that I’m in now except for one thing - the view. My current view overlooks the streets of Seattle. The clean lines of the high rise buildings etched against water and snow capped peaks in the distances. My view in India was not clean – but of the poorest of the poor. People living in slums slammed together in one large garbage laden slow moving organism. Watching people suffer below my five star window didn’t make me feel important. I felt guilt, sorrow, and hopelessness. But I quickly moved on. I did nothing. I suppose that I had more important things to take care of.
Why is true of us? Why is this true of me?
“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” – Mark 4:18,19
I’m here because of a Partner Advisory Council that Microsoft hosts twice a year. I get together with a couple dozen peers from around the world to meet with Microsoft, get an early preview of what’s coming, and influence their strategy for Collaboration and Portals. It’s exclusive. Participating makes me feel important. Better yet, telling other people that I participate makes me feel important.
I don’t like this about myself. I don’t like that these externals have the power to affect my self worth in any way.
I would often stay in nice five star hotels during my trips to India. They were not dissimilar to the hotel that I’m in now except for one thing - the view. My current view overlooks the streets of Seattle. The clean lines of the high rise buildings etched against water and snow capped peaks in the distances. My view in India was not clean – but of the poorest of the poor. People living in slums slammed together in one large garbage laden slow moving organism. Watching people suffer below my five star window didn’t make me feel important. I felt guilt, sorrow, and hopelessness. But I quickly moved on. I did nothing. I suppose that I had more important things to take care of.
Why is true of us? Why is this true of me?
“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” – Mark 4:18,19
posted by Josh at 7:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home