As a follow up to the previous post God’s bias for the city, here’s some thoughts on why the cities are strategic to anyone who wants to make a global impact.
Cities are both magnets and magnifiers. People from surrounding areas are drawn in and everything they do is amplified and ripples back out.
Increased density means there’s people like you there. People you can connect with and people you compete with.
Increased diversity means there’s people completely unlike you there that you’ll need to learn to work with and from.
Density and diversity cultivates, if not forces, innovation and change
Cities are where the fringes of culture converge – the poor and the rich, the skater and the geek, etc.
Cities are where people are at. As of 2007 the world reached a demographic tipping point where more people live in urban environments than rural. Nearly all population growth going forward will be in cities.
Cities are educational hubs where new ideas and creativity are highly valued.
Cities are media hubs that broadcast the human story.
Cities shape and create culture for the masses downstream. Where the city goes, the culture goes.
It seems I still haven’t been able to shake my love/hate relationship with speaking and preaching. I’m definitely my worst critic, but I feel bad when it leaks into the critique of others sometimes.
Some people speak just to say something (the blabbers),
And as the saying goes, some people speak because they have something to say (which is nice)
Some people have something to say, but it’s irrelevant to who they’re speaking to (the guy with the megaphone on the street)
Some people speak just to be heard (folks with passion and great stuff to say, but rush through it thinking that getting it off their chest will make a difference)
And then there’s people who speak to transform (and they leave a mark on your soul you can’t seem to get rid of)
I try to be the last. It doesn’t always work out, but I’m committed to the art.
Grasshopper.com did a great job with their recent marketing campaign using social media. They created the above video, while a bit cliche, I thought it was nicely done.
The video works because its message rings true of the human spirit. We’re all summoned to create, risk, lead, and change, at least in some area in our lives. Whether we’re able to hear that calling, or do anything about it, might be a different story altogether.
I pour my heart into a lot of different things that I think are worthwhile, but I question if I’m changing the world. I’m in a city of nearly six million where a simple stroll through the downtown core can make you feel like a speck of dust.
I think when you’ve changed a life (including your own), you’ve already changed the world.
Europe a Muslim continent in a few decades? Can culture really be definied as narrowly as by population? How might President Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world shape things? Where does Christ fit into all of this?
SolarCrash.com now runs on the thesis framework. I bought into it because I wanted to refresh this site and am planning on doing some site development for others. I’m also really banking on the search engine optimization hype all over it. Finding a promotional discount also helped.
I was exploring Thematic, and some other frameworks at first, but felt that a lot of them were still glitchy and in beta stages. Thesis seems to have reached the tipping point where the kinks have been ironed out and there’s a large support community around it.
It’s definitely powerful, but having said that, I wouldn’t get it if I was completely code-illiterate, unless you’re willing for your site to look like an increasing number of other Thesis-driven sites out there.
This site still needs some work, but I’ll have to let it slide till I have more time to tinker around.
Some changes so far
- cutting the load time by half - added a social profile icon bar at the top - creating a ‘brighter’ look with the background - rounded corners – using some new css features – that won’t work in IE though. - shifted the nav bar down below the header - removed redundant links like home / subscribe - added a intro section hook above the sidebars - removed some dividing lines for a cleaner feel - edited the threaded commenting system so it’s a bit more engaging
I still hope to eventually make a new logo/banner, layout the navigation pages better, and probably remove those google ads once I hit the next payment clip. I’m getting a bit tired of ‘Sexy Christian Singles” ads. Hopefully I’ll get some sponsors at some point (can you believe I made 10% of my income last year, through this blog?)
If you plan on purchasing Thesis, you can click my affiliate link so I can get some cash back.
Let me know if you’ve got ideas on making a better site, specifically this one!
Daddy daycare is over, and today’s my first time in a month having the 8 hours of the day all to myself.
Between having the best time in the world hanging out with my daughter, I’ve been squeezing in the odd hour or two each day, at my full time career… trying to change the world of course.
Let me say those of you who are stay-at-home parents, much honor and glory and praise is due to you! I have no doubt that many of you live with plans on hold and dreams deferred. You’re a gift to your child and to the world.
And single parents out there, I have no idea how you do it. period. You astound me.
Today I made breakfast and lunch for my wife and daughter. Read through the scriptures (I’ve been reading genesis, and going through John & Revelations backwards). While watching the Toronto Government 2.0 Summit, I finished preparing for a talk on the ‘theology of ecology’ I’ll be doing with my wife this Sunday.
Also managed to dig through some emails, book my next several meetings, and write up the next ten blog posts.
As a follow up to the previous post God’s bias for the city, here’s some thoughts on why the cities are strategic to anyone who wants to make a global impact.
