Analog

by Brian Ritchie

March 2025

I’ve never been one who cared about efficiency and speed when it came to navigating a crowd. Which, I understand, is a lesser skill that could be equated with things like loading the dishwasher properly and putting the seat down on the toilet.

Nevertheless, it is a skill, and it's one that city dwellers—those are the people who talk fast, don’t have driver’s licenses, and share the opinion that everything is improved by covering it with a firm layer of concrete—believe is a learned skill that only they possess. Anyone from non-city places, they assume, is just too slow and uninitiated to possibly keep up with highly evolved people such as them.

I don’t know if that is true, but as someone who has spent loads of time in both urban and rural settings, I don't have this ability.

My wife, however, does.

She is always keen to take on crossing a mob, and can navigate it like a whitetail doe bounding through a forest. She’s fast, astute, and works every situation like a chess master.

Then, after the thrill of victory, she is faced with the agonizing challenge of waiting for me.

John

Back in high school, when I had grown tired of parental companionship and decided it was time to trade them in for someone my age, I selected John.

He had many qualities that made him a perfect best friend, not the least of which was that he owned a car.

I’m just kidding.

What drew me to him was that he didn’t mind hanging out with someone a little tall and skinny who was really into girls, as long as he didn’t have to initiate a conversation with one of them.

Neither of us was popular, athletic, theatrical, musical, or talented, nor were we interested in English, math, or science—things like telescopes or particle accelerators.

But we did like hanging out and cracking wise about everyone who was good at things that we thought were stupid.

This gave us plenty to do.

The Airport

One day John and I were walking through a crowd in the Dulles Airport terminal. It was busy and bustling, and John, like my wife, is one of the aforementioned skilled crowd carvers, so he reached open space well ahead of me.

When I finally cleared the edge, he was waiting there with that look on his face.

“Did you see that guy?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed.

“We just walked by three hundred guys. No, I didn’t see that guy.”

I ignored the sarcasm and continued.

“He had earrings in both ears.”

“So.”

“So, left means you like girls and right means, you know, you don’t. What does both mean?”

This was a legitimate question in the 80s. Everyone knew the strict rules of male ear piercing and both was not on the list.

“You see things nobody else does,” he said.

Then he turned and walked away.

“You see things nobody else does.”

I took that as the end of the conversation, but I realized something in that moment.

I was an analog.

Analog and Digital

People are either analog or digital, which is just a definition that can be used to understand human beings by how they suffer the experience of living in a world with a bunch of humans in it.

Digital people are clinical and precise. They concern themselves with facts. Their journey through each day involves storing experiences as bits of data.

Their brains are constantly churning zeroes and ones:on, off, on, on, on, off, off, on, off.

It’s tedious but efficient, and it affords them a profound ability known as recall.

I happen to be married to a digital and am constantly amazed by her ability to recall things like dates, times, people’s names, weather conditions, car make and model, state capitals, and the best soil pH to grow asparagus.

Digital people are suited to be historians, mathematicians, scientists, mothers, doctors, cowboys, fathers, steelworkers, and just about anything useful.

They are also known as smart people.

Analogs, on the other hand, are wavy.

Information kind of rides into their brains on the current. They love what’s happening between the beats, and they get caught up in emotional minutia.

They laugh a lot, cry more than they want you to know, and they can describe something in a way that makes you feel, because it's all about the feelings for them, man.

These people are aspiring writers, artists, and musicians, but can mostly be spotted behind the counter at Starbucks.

They are also known as creatives.

Analogs notice the details between the beats.

Why We Need Both

What’s important is that the world needs both of us.

Suppose there were only digitals. They would want to spend their time discussing information, which would lead to competitive knowing things.

And, as we all know, no one wins those arguments, which would lead to everyone hating each other, hiding in their houses, and not wanting to reproduce the human race with any of those morons out there.

If there were only analogues, people would just tell stories, sing songs, and paint.

The race would never have made it out of the Middle Ages because everyone would have been jesters, and no one would have been king.

Lord of the Flies

Here is a practical example of an analog and digital working together to better humanity.

John and I were in the same English class in 12th grade.

One of our reading assignments, due to the masochism of high school English teachers, was The Lord of the Flies.

I feel safe commenting on the quality of this novel because I did read a percentage of it.

I’m not quite sure just what percentage, as I remember giving up right after Piggy died.

Hope I didn’t spoil it for anyone.

John, who is a digital person, read the entire book on the eve of a very important exam that would cover the novel and, as it turned out, would also decide if I was going to be awarded a high school diploma.

I played Space Invaders.

John got a C+.I got a smooth, wavy A.

This might seem flippant and like I was uninterested in my future to you, and you would be right.

However, it’s important to understand that to an analog, tomorrow is like a totally abstract construct.

So the way I solved the situation I had put myself in was to ask John for a quick overview of the book on our walk from 4th to 5th period.

For some reason he felt undue pressure from my request and frantically spewed everything he could think of and commenced worrying he had left something out.

As a digital, John excels at almost anything he tries, but that day I think the pressure I put on him threw him.

He got a C+.

I, on the other hand, got a smooth, wavy A.

True story.

Thoughts

John can bring real, palpable help to any situation. His data will be accurate, and his assessments will be spot on.

I, on the other hand, will give you a creative narrative. I will make you laugh or cry, and your feelings will get a long-overdue workout.

Being an analog means I see weird little details that may be irrelevant to the facts, but they are the seasoning in the potatoes.

And who wants bland potatoes?

God the Storyteller

I guess I love the journey of a story and the excitement of the beautiful and ugly details.

It’s what happens on the way up or down the wave where I see God’s glory and workmanship as the author of our existence.

Romans 11:36

“For from him and through him and to him are all things.To him be glory forever. Amen.”

God is the greatest of all storytellers.

He’s telling one right now in your life.

No matter what you woke up to this morning and moved into, it was today’s act in the play that is your life.

God is the one painting the scenery, writing the script, directing the players.

And if you listen to him, he’s got a killer finale prepared for you.

Living into His story is how we keep bright and hopeful.

Prayer

Savior Jesus,I am savedI am savedI am saved

Father God, let that be the finale of the great drama you have told me. But may it just be the opening line to an adventure, a thriller, a mystery, and most of all a love story.

Praise you, Lord, for the incredible care you put into the details of our lives, and that you write every twist and turn for the glory of your kingdom and the edification of those who love you.

Bless this day, oh Lord, and give us eyes to see, and ears to hear.

In the name of Jesus,Amen.

Going Deeper

How might your own “noticing” — of small details, emotions, and people — be a way God invites you to see His presence in ordinary life?

Consider how being attentive to beauty, imperfection, or humor helps you recognize God’s fingerprints in daily moments.

What story is God writing in your life right now that you might be too busy—or too distracted—to notice?

What details, emotions, or “small scenes” might He be using to reveal something deeper about Himself?

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