I know there are those of you out there that think those of us ‘mourning’ the passing of Steve Jobs are overreacting – we didn’t know him, how could we possibly be this affected by his passing.
There have been beloved figures that have died that I have felt saddened by, but only a few where I actually wanted to ‘mourn’ and pay my respects. These are people that have had a profound affect on me/my life in one way or another. Jim Henson, Theodore Geisel, Rod Serling (years later) – immensely creative minds that brought a unique passion & vision to their work. Imagination…it’s probably my favorite word, and these men all had it in spades, and their passing felt like a personal loss. I now have to add one more to that list – Steve Jobs.
While working in film & television production (about 19 years ago), the company I worked for decided to buy a NeXt computer & an MacIntosh Quadra to do our own graphics. The machines were obscenely expensive then, but oh the possibilities. I’ve watch Apple progress since that time..going from huge hard drives that held little to pushing the limits of what we can store at our fingertips. My first ‘design’ Mac that I had at home had a 4GB hard drive, that was about 1996. Amazing to think how much the Mac has progressed in 15 years. You can now do almost anything on an iMac – things that just a short time ago seemed impossible.
That is why I mourn Steve Jobs. His leadership, his vision..is what made that possible. My computer is my toolbox, my pen & paper, my way of expressing who I am. Steve Jobs gave me that.
This was an amazing cartoon that was done when Mel Blanc died..that’s kind of how I feel today, just substitute a computer for the microphone.
