Please God, Not the Computer!

My computer began to do some very strange and unfamiliar things tonight. I was just about to shut it down when all of these windows began popping up, one right after the other. Before I could utter the words, “what the…” there were over a dozen strange boxes on my screen and more popping up every second. I told my roommate what was happening and the look on her face sent shivers down my spine. She looked at my screen, looked at me, and grimaced. I tentatively asked, “Is my computer dying?” while I dug my fingertips into my eyebrows, my outward manifestation of worry.



Within those few seconds while Su explained to me that this was exactly what her computer had done only a few days earlier when hers had crashed with no chance of recovering a single document, song, picture, or program, I imagined my entire world crashing down around me. No pun intended. What would happen to all my writing? What would I do without year’s worth of pictures? How would I sync my ipod with new songs? Worst of all, how would I update my Facebook status without my faithful companion: Mr. Computer? It was at this moment that I promised, as God is my witness, I will give my friend the computer a proper name if he makes it through. It was also in this moment that I realized my computer is male. Who knew? I’ll take suggestions but right now I’m thinking something that incorporates all of the things I love about having a computer like: Wordgoogfaceblog or iTunmapquestube or Online Banking. Like I said, I’m open to suggestions.



As I sat there, stunned into silence waiting to see the inevitable smoke that was sure to issue from the keys at any moment, the life of my computer flashed before my eyes. In just two short years I have saved, synced, downloaded, burned, and catalogued my life into this relatively small device. It’s all in there. All of me. And I have no external hard-drive. No form of back-up that has been so wisely suggested to me over the years. I have one measly memory stick with selected items which, when compared to my anatomy, would contain about half an arms worth of information…or one buttcheek if I wanted to make you laugh. My entity or essence or whatever was about to combust in an explosion of lettered keys, computer chips, and glass. I imagined the “delete” button hitting me in the forehead just to be ironic. All seemed lost and life no longer had purpose.



When I awoke from semi-consciousness I listened to Su’s cousin, Lizette (visiting from South Africa before moving on to Canada – check out her tale of adventure at Cape to Canada), who told me to push the power button until it turned off, pray, and turn it back on. I did as I was told, hoping God would have mercy on me in my time of need.



This was it. The moment where I discover whether life goes on or ceases to be forever. I pushed that thin silver bar, watched the blue light turn on, and waited….everything was fine. My computer started without a hitch and now I have an anti-virus program and a new lease on life. This is probably the part where you assume I’ll go on and on about how we shouldn’t consider our online profiles to sum us up as people. Or how our lives cannot be contained within a laptop and we would all be happier without these technological nuisances. Or how this type of loss is really nothing when compared to real, deep, and serious loss people encounter every day. But I’m not going to. I’m just happy my computer is healed! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have any of you…whoever you are.

I propose a toast: to Mr. Computer, soon to be referred to as something much more awesome, Cheers!

-Age