Vision
"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;"
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"
Four months ago, I was given the opportunity to take on a new role within my unit at Ohio State. Right now, the position is interim, as a new Chief Information Officer needs to be hired before the position I'm currently filling can be officially filled (this position reports directly to the CIO). A CIO has been selected, and has (it seems) accepted her new role with OSU, so I expect to know more about whether this position can become permanent in June or July.
Yesterday, I received a payraise to reflect new responsibilities. That was nice, but not at all what this entry is about. Instead, it's about Vision.
Vision is something I have come to think much about recently. Running a Grove required vision, and being the Grove Priest for 3CG seems to require it even more. This new job requires vision, and even the debate over whether to accept the new responsibilities or to go to Colorado involved much intense soul-searching and testing of possible options, with one solid and sure path finally appearing before me. My life has been consumed by vision in the past six months.
As I go into this job in particular, dealing with many different kinds of people and entities, I find that I'm developing vision almost like one would develop a muscle: though constant use, pushing its limits, and working hard to keep it in good working order.
I have found myself slowing down, taking stock, and deliberating a lot more with myself. My choices are certainly better than they used to be, and my understanding of the long-term effects of my actions is clearer and more defined. I have seen my actions bear more fruit than they have in the past, and understood how they work over time. I have watched tiny seeds of action and thought grow into strong young trees that have weathered fierce storms.
Vision has an interesting effect on the individual, as well: it makes them more confident, happier, and responsive. I've noticed it within myself, too. I know what I want, I know I will achieve it, and I know what actions I need to take to obtain that goal. I am more often achieving said goals, and I am reaching that achievement in manners that are far more concerned with virtue than previous means I have used.
Vision brings knowledge and joy. The joy it brings is as deep as the joy of ignorance, but the breadth of this vision-joy is wider than the broad earth that supports the mountains and nourishes the trees, not slim like the path of a rock dropped in the ocean of ignorance.
I don't consider myself "visionary," nor do I think of my self as always "acting with vision." But I do find myself seeing more, and interpreting what I see in better, more complete ways. It is like walking past a bright, spring green tree against a deep blue, empty sky and saying, "I have never seen those colours before in my life, but I know them well, and they are natural together."
"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others-in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees."
-Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922), "Remembrance of Things Past"
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;"
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"
Four months ago, I was given the opportunity to take on a new role within my unit at Ohio State. Right now, the position is interim, as a new Chief Information Officer needs to be hired before the position I'm currently filling can be officially filled (this position reports directly to the CIO). A CIO has been selected, and has (it seems) accepted her new role with OSU, so I expect to know more about whether this position can become permanent in June or July.
Yesterday, I received a payraise to reflect new responsibilities. That was nice, but not at all what this entry is about. Instead, it's about Vision.
Vision is something I have come to think much about recently. Running a Grove required vision, and being the Grove Priest for 3CG seems to require it even more. This new job requires vision, and even the debate over whether to accept the new responsibilities or to go to Colorado involved much intense soul-searching and testing of possible options, with one solid and sure path finally appearing before me. My life has been consumed by vision in the past six months.
As I go into this job in particular, dealing with many different kinds of people and entities, I find that I'm developing vision almost like one would develop a muscle: though constant use, pushing its limits, and working hard to keep it in good working order.
I have found myself slowing down, taking stock, and deliberating a lot more with myself. My choices are certainly better than they used to be, and my understanding of the long-term effects of my actions is clearer and more defined. I have seen my actions bear more fruit than they have in the past, and understood how they work over time. I have watched tiny seeds of action and thought grow into strong young trees that have weathered fierce storms.
Vision has an interesting effect on the individual, as well: it makes them more confident, happier, and responsive. I've noticed it within myself, too. I know what I want, I know I will achieve it, and I know what actions I need to take to obtain that goal. I am more often achieving said goals, and I am reaching that achievement in manners that are far more concerned with virtue than previous means I have used.
Vision brings knowledge and joy. The joy it brings is as deep as the joy of ignorance, but the breadth of this vision-joy is wider than the broad earth that supports the mountains and nourishes the trees, not slim like the path of a rock dropped in the ocean of ignorance.
I don't consider myself "visionary," nor do I think of my self as always "acting with vision." But I do find myself seeing more, and interpreting what I see in better, more complete ways. It is like walking past a bright, spring green tree against a deep blue, empty sky and saying, "I have never seen those colours before in my life, but I know them well, and they are natural together."
"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others-in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees."
-Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922), "Remembrance of Things Past"