The big news story from earlier this week may have been overlooked. The last typewriter factory left in the world closed its doors - Godrej and Boyce – the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters – has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India with just a few hundred machines left in stock. My reaction … change happens. With change comes new opportunity. When we resist new possibilities, we miss out on the opportunity of living life to its fullest.

With news of the death of the typewriter, I was reminded of a post I shared last year. It’s a great reminder that we need to be open to life’s possibilities.

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Damn You Luddites!

This morning I was reading an article from Reuters detailing how the northern English town of Huddersfield is planning a 200 year anniversary of the Luddite movement. As you may be aware, the Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested, often by destroying mechanized looms, against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution. The Luddites felt that the the new machines were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life, so they pillaged, and in some cases, murdered those that got in their way.

If you work in the arena of non-profit or faith-based communications, you’ve encountered a modern day Luddite from time-to-time. Now they’re not going to take a baseball bat to your laptop or trash your iPhone — excuses are their weapon of choice. Modern day Luddites say things like:

• “But, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
• “We don’t have enough staff.”
• “We like things the way they are.”
• “Our membership is too small.”
• “It’s too expensive.”
• “Our congregation is older.”
• “Our membership is on dial-up.”
• “We haven’t had a visitor or a new member join in 10 years!”
• “Facebook is for kids.”

These are all excuses that I’ve heard first-hand in working with churches and non-profits for the past 17 years. Excuses are used either when someone is scared to try something new, has a narrow vision for the future, or has been stretched so thin by their employer that they either resist or chance watching the house of cards come tumbling down.

Are you a modern day Luddite, also known as a pessimist, naysayer, or worrywart? And you realists, you are dangerously close to falling into the Luddite group. I offer this olive branch, throw down your book of excuses, and join our revolution of optimism, what ifs, and can you only imagine. We welcome you with open arms.