Some months back, my
trusty old computer stopped functioning. I learned that I shouldn’t trust a
machine, which had the audacity to take with it much of the functionalities I
had built in to suit the way I work, and many of my contacts.
I didn’t lose any work,
because I had my files and photos backed up on a USB drive. Setting a second computer properly
took time and this computer is not yet up to the one that was.
I can look back now, and
see that I survived. There are (much) worse things.
But, at that time, I felt
so lost and disconnected that I lamented to DD how I long for the innocent days
of my childhood, when connecting meant seeing someone in person or writing a
snail mail letter.
Her response, pasted here
from Messenger (my phone worked):
“…Do you miss your boyhood in surrey, romping
with your school chums in the fens and spinneys?”
And then she sent this
link:
It’s a brilliant section
from an old episode of Frasier, a TV show we used to watch when she was but a
youth. Her comment was a quotation from one of the characters in it, and her pointed
reflection on the uselessness of nostalgia for “simpler times.”
I laughed. It made a
difference.
Eventually, we laugh at
so many things we had experienced as important.
There’s no point in
lamenting what isn’t anymore.
Meanwhile, back up your
computers, everyone.
4 comments:
Yes to a more innocent time. And good idea to back up the machines.
People who have grown up only digitally have no experiential understanding of an analog life. Those of us who know analog as well as digital can’t help but have some nostalgia for a less speedy time, a time when we talked to each other rather than texted. On the other hand, I love being able to instantaneously communicate with friends around the world. Aerograms took ages to reach people in other countries, but more thought went into handwritten or typed letters than into quick emails. We can appreciate the two ways, those of us who know them both, and also be critics of them, if we want to!
Some people complain about computers, yet they become upset when their business needs aren't met in an instant. The computer makes so much possible.
Love,
Janie
Good advice!
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