Funnels and Filters

I’m often like the wide end of a funnel with a porous filter. I allow too many things to flood unchecked into my world, bottlenecking at the narrow end, clogging up my attention span, and then spilling over the edges to never be touched or thought about again.

Confession… Someone called me a Renaissance Man, and I had to look it up… See! Another word or idea that flooded my funnel.

In this crazy instant world, we are easily overwhelmed by data streams. The 24-hour news cycle competes with 24-hour social reporting, and before you know it, bam! You reach the saturation point, and no amount of control will pull you back from the edge of overload. Is what I just heard fact, fiction, or someone’s viewpoint that may or may not be based upon the facts I’m looking for!

This is why I’m constantly looking for the source of my input.
I need to verify the who, what, where, when, why and sometimes the How!

Having a filter often means limiting my access to things that come only from previously vetted and trusted sources. It’s hard for me to accept someone new unless they have values I can relate to! You may feel in control if you focus your input on profitable and needful things. Your filters could prevent the unprofitable data streams from reaching the mouth of the funnel.

Picture This

We’ve all created filters to control what enters the funnel, but when you are inquisitive it is easy to ignore the filter and hope the funnel never clogs, or at least learn to accept the overwhelming feeling of “too much” and crying out, No Mas!

Here’s a side note of many filters – they close us off from new ideas. Innovations often come in the snap of a moment when you allow your inventiveness to go places it’s never been before. Unless you have a way of allowing something new to slip in under the radar, you will always be relegated to accepting only previously defined norms.

An hourglass is nothing more than a funnel connected to another funnel, with the output end of one becoming the input end of the other. In other words, its entire focus is to keep the same grains of sand slipping from one end to the other. This hourglass has a large input section and a narrow output section, and it slowly trickles the same sand from one input section to another input section so it can be reused. Input to Input… Nothing changes. You just have to flip the direction!

Over and Again, Results Never Change

What if…? What if we take this funnel thought to a different level. Consider the trumpet. The mouthpiece (input) is nothing more than a funnel to compress the air you exhale into it. What happens in the middle is where the source of music is made! Understand. You need to force your breath through the funnel so it can be forced out of the bell! What is this bell? Just a funnel reversed! All this hard effort and magic produces a sound that can make your feet dance, hands slap together, and a reveled feeling of enjoyment!

Hard work and Magic transfer your efforts into music!

This past week I’ve been thinking about the differences between the Hourglass and the Trumpet. Both have two funnels. One simply measures the same ol’ tasks over and over, but the other one has the ability to transfer into beautiful music. One person may like the structure of “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), but another may like the idea of hard work in and beautiful music out.

Answer me this. What’s your personality? Same Old, Same Old? Or let’s make some new music!