Thank Mr. Jobs

When he stepped down in August from his duties at Apple, I knew Steve Jobs was probably going to die soon but I was still surprised at how emotional I felt. Really? Tears for a man I never met?

I have such a special place in my heart for him though. I loved what Gabby wrote here and I can ditto everything she said. I loved reading the tributes and blogs and tweets about his life and his genius and that he was just a good person. The best thing about it is that everything I read or learned about him just made me like him even more. I think that is rare.

Usually, after someone of Steve Jobs' stature dies there are the tributes and then there are skeletons that come creeping out of the closets. That doesn't seem to be happening. The worst thing I've read about him is that he was hard to work for because he was so exacting and a perfectionist.

I love his life story. I love is philosophy on life. I love that his CEO salary from Apple was $1.00 annually.

His creations have had a direct impact on the Rodgers family. Of course we love iPods and iPhones and Apple TV and we are really excited for Santa to show up with an iPad or two this Christmas. And am I the only one who can't bring themselves to throw away the Apple packaging for months after I open something? It is so beautiful!

It was only 6 months ago that I learned that Steve Jobs was responsible for Pixar's continuation and survival. (The Pixar Story is a documentary and is on Netflix 'watch it now'.) If he did nothing else in his life, that alone was such an amazingly beautiful thing. I supposed that could be said for many of his endeavors, but those movies played in extremely important role in the childhood of each of my children. Because of that I have a particular love for them.

I've read many stories about Mr. Jobs, a majority of them in the last few days but this was the dearest to me: For all of his single-minded dedication to the company he built from the ground up, Jobs actually skipped a meeting to take Laurene on their first date: "I was in the parking lot with the key in the car, and I thought to myself, 'If this is my last night on earth, would I rather spend it at a business meeting or with this woman?' I ran across the parking lot, asked her if she'd have dinner with me. She said yes, we walked into town and we've been together ever since."

It came from this article.

All this to say that Steve Jobs will be missed and I believe that in 100 years people will still know who he was and what he was responsible for. He made The Rodgers' world a more beautiful place.