alan wells

Today I finally finished a book I’ve been working on since my Thanksgiving break in Copenhagen: Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This book was an absolutely amazing read. Its a study of creativity based on interviews with 91 exceptionally creative and successful people, spanning the fields of science, technology, business, art, and literature. It is one of few books I’ve read that I felt like I could flip right back to the first page and read it all over again right after finishing it. I’d highly reccomend it to anyone who feels like they don’t fit into the typical molds of our society, sees the world slightly differently than most, or aspires to be creative personally or professionally.

I’ll need a new book for my trip to Tasmania tomorrrow, and I’m hoping to pick up a copy of one of these at the airport tomorrow:
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present by Michael Oren

The Best American Travel Writing, edited by Bill Bryson

Its been a bit lonely in Sydney lately, most of the students at the University until classes resume in February, and orientation for my program isn’t until Feb 4th. So I decided that I’d take advantage of the time before orientation to get out my Sydney suburb and go travel a bit. Tasmania is a place that I never made it to last time I was in Australia, and its a pretty short flight from Sydney, so I’ll be heading there tomorrow morning. I’m doing tour with a backpacker tour company, not my preffered method of traveling but its just not economical to rent a car when you’re travelling alone. I’ll be in Tazzy until Feb 3rd, and hope to come back with some good pictures and good stories. One place I’m looking forward to checking out is Port Arthur, a famous penal colony established on Tasmania (Tasmania is an island south of Australia) for its remoteness and isolation (not unlike the concept behind Alcatraz).

When I saw Apple’s iPhone demo, one of the most exciting things about to to me was not the phone itself but the multi-touch interface used in the phone. If Apple’s using this in a phone, it can’t be too far away from being used in a computer. Then I found this video, from a company called Perceptive Pixel, doing exactly that:

Well I’m in Sydney now, and I have tons of stuff to write about in regards to that, as well as address the topics that got left behind in my pre-departure craziness, but for now I want to relay something that happened to me today.

While sitting at a bus stop, waiting to catch a bus to the shopping center to buy sheets and a pillow, I ended up chatting with a woman in her late 70’s who turned out to be a Catholic nun from Ireland (she wasn’t dressed in a habit, otherwise I would have known this off the bat. obviously.) We were small-talking about the weather for a bit and then got into a pretty interesting conversation the touched on politics, young people, spirituality vs religion, global warming, finding your life’s work and passion, and the paradox of the existence of God in relation to evil in the world and free will (Her simple answer is that God gave us free will but we have to take responsibility for the use of it, and the irresponsible use of it is where the evil comes from).

The spirtuality vs religion bit was great, particularly because I consier myself a spiritual person but definitely not a religious person and I was a bit wary of revealing that to a Catholic nun. But it didn’t seem to bother her too much, and she said that she thought the difference between religion and spirtuality was that religion was just the daily steps and rituals, and that only does not make for spirtuality, that there has to be some deeper relationship for the religion and spirituality to become one feeling inside a person.

Although this is already an interesting encounter, to understand why this was a more meaningful thing than it might have otherwise been, you have to understand the context for me. I’ve been in Sydney for 6 days. I don’t know anybody here, its been pretty lonely, and I’ve really been questioning what I’m doing here and whether this is where I should be, in a personal and professional sense. I was trying to relate this feeling to Sister Anne, and her response to my dilemma was,

“Do you mind if I have a yarn with the Lord about you?”

And although I’m not a religious man and for the most part have trouble squaring with organized religion, that seemed like an offer I couldn’t refuse, particularly in my current state of inner turmoil and doubt in my direction. Soon after, the bus stopped and we went our separate ways.

Her departing words were, “I hope you come to the right choices.”

Something about the way she said that just hit me, as it seemed to address all the complexity and weight of the things I’m juggling right now. I walked away with a huge smile on my face and couldn’t help but think that sometimes the right people appear in our lives at just the right time.

Thanks, Sister Anne. You made my day. And I’ll be stopping by to see how that yarn with the Lord went…