How to create a moon portal (or Standing on the Shoulders of Giants)

My youngest son (9 years old) consumes more content from YouTube than he watches TV. We’ve not encouraged or discouraged this, it’s just the best way for him to get the content that he’s most interested in.

Back in the summer, I agreed to help him make a “one off” video wiki for Minecraft fans and upload it to YouTube. A bit of fun perhaps but it was also the start of something he wanted to experiment with and use.  We all enjoyed the novelty of the experience and the fun of playing around with the camera and that was that. Ever since, he’s continued to watch and study various channels on YouTube and now has a pretty good idea of what a useful &/or fun video looks like. He’s ever so keen to start his own YouTube channel and put out Minecraft videos on a regular basis.

Deep breath & jump…

So it’s Saturday morning and I’m helping to create a Gmail account & YouTube profile for this purpose. In the meantime he & his friends are busy videoing tips, tricks & gameplay on Minecraft. How exactly did this happen?!?

As I’m doing all this, I take a look at the video we uploaded in the summer – we had purposefully disabled comments and hadn’t been back since.  It’s a moment of realisation… He’s had more hits on his short 2 minute video than any of my blog posts during 2013!

Now I could put all sorts of thinking and meaning to compare & contrast my writing with this single video. Us adults are very good at that aren’t we? It’s not the point. It’s quite possibly never the point.

The point is that he’s chuffed & I’m chuffed.

The point is that it’s not about me – it’s about helping him do something he really wants to do.

The point is that I need to learn from this moment of realisation much more than he does.

We all sit on the shoulders of giants, both at home & at work, not because we are greater but because someone helped us fulfil that desire to climb a bit higher. To help make that happen for others is possibly one of the greatest privileges we will ever experience.

So let me finish in the only way I can, by sharing with you that first YouTube video. I hope you enjoy it!