All This You Can Leave Behind...

Thirty years ago today, something happened which changed my life. Thirty years ago today, the ZX Spectrum was launched. This was a revolution in computing, and one which very much shaped my life, as it was pretty much entirely this machine that kick started my love of computers, gadgets and all things geeky! Or, to put it another way, it is this machine that my wife has to blame for the proliferation of wires, connectors, discs and other computer and gadget related paraphernalia which clutters up our house today.

The ZX Spectrum, as all true Sinclair lovers will tell you, was a million times better than anything else available at the time, much better than the Commodore 64, or the Acorn Electron, and particularly the BBC.... Sure, in technical terms these other upstart machines had the edge on the good old Speccy, but in terms of usability, availability of games, playability of games and general all round everyday use, the Spectrum was the best....

But this isn't the place to repeat the old arguments of my childhood... the point here is that, although this machine is something I cherished in my early years, and although it taught me a lot about computing, and about programming (and about how annoying computers could be when they didn't do what was expected...), I'm not wedded to the ZX Spectrum now. There are somethings that I look back about the Spectrum and would like to have back in a modern computer, but there is so much about modern computers and gadgets which are better than the old Spectrum that most of the time, I'm much happier with my toys of today than I was with my toy of yesterday!

But is that always the case. God wants us to move on with him, to journey and continue to experience the new things that he is doing, and although he is the unchanging God, he is continually doing new things in our lives and in our world. But we often hold ourselves back, clinging nostalgically to the old things, the things that have passed... Yes, we should learn the fundamental truths from the those things - we should remember the things that God has used to shape us and mold us and move us onward, but we should never allow looking back to be something which holds us back.

Now, I wonder what happened to that old Spectrum..... perhaps I can find an emulator out there for a birthday celebration ;-)