Computers, Carson, Success And Satisfaction

When my son started law school in 1987, we had to buy him this contraption called a computer. We had not heard too much about them in those days; we went out and bought him one costing twenty-seven hundred dollars and he took it out to the law school in D.C. with his other belongings and living items. His friend mentioned to us that “computers were the coming exciting thing in the future years”. He mentioned he was going in to the workforce of being a computer person. I really did not think too much of his chosen position, what did I know? Nothing is what I knew then, about this wonder called computers.

Now, my life is centered to a certain point with computers. I email, I write articles, and I look up things that I use to have to buy a book about or go in my young years to a library. A library was a free standing building where you visited often to gain the knowledge from books you did not own or have at home. When we had a project for school, if we were rich enough to own a set of encyclopedias; you need not walk to the library. I only had a one encyclopedia book and often, it did not give the necessary information you needed.

Now days, all you have to do is type in a word and lots of information comes up. True, you have to separate what may not be real, but more often you can learn so much from the site.

I would say that I find computers to be a caring tool, a comforting machine and a clear and concise piece of equipment to use in all the workplace. You cannot go into a doctor’s office without giving all your private information and it will be put in their computer. The other day, I was in a physician’s office and a woman new to the office, rebelled on putting down her maiden name. The secretary said it was necessary for their collected knowledge about her. She was very upset and would you believe, she walked out of the office and I thought she was going home. About ten minutes later, she came in, filled in the words and was called back to see the doctor.

My brother balked at getting a computer and when I told him, it was time to become modern, he still resisted it. I did not know that a few weeks before he passed on, he bought one and he was in the midst of enjoying its use.

When I wake up in the morning, after I brush my teeth and wash my face and before the daily shower, I put a heating pad on my arthritic knees and check my emails. Who would have thought people do this, most people grab their cup of coffee first. My stimulation is to see the emails, hopefully good ones and to view my beloved Towson.Patch.com.

My son’s friend Richard was ahead of his own time. When he told me he was going into this new profession called computers, I thought “ why is this very smart young man, not becoming a doctor, lawyer, CPA, pharmacist or whatever was a popular profession to go into then.”

I visit Facebook every day to see what my friends are doing or are about to do. A friend and his wife had twins last year and they post photos of the boys on their page and though I do not get to see them, I see them on the page. My great niece posts pictures of her little boy (my great, great nephew) and I get to see his growing years because they live far away. She had a little girl last year and I can see her development though she lives faraway of course too.

This article was previously written in May 2012 on Cockeysville Patch. I find it in my files and all I have to do is change a few things from Cockeysville Patch and lo and behold I can publish it on Towson.Patch.com with my new thoughts. When I wrote for 17 years for a magazine called Amateur Dancers, I was the senior page editor for them and I wrote a monthly column, mostly about amateur dancers and their hopes and desires and their accomplishments and mine too. I had no computer until 2000 and if I wanted to change something before I submitted it to the editor Robert Jacob Meyer of Catonsville, I had to write it out and mail it to him or to call him to do it for me. I handwrote the articles; I did not use a typewriter because I was a better hand writer than a typist. Then in 2000 I got my first computer and Robert sent me a computer email. In it he said “Elita, now you are a modern woman.”

Yeah, I was a modern lady in 2000 and when I started in 1990 with the magazine, I was a 56 year old just about becoming a senior.

Now due to computer use, I can change, add, delete and add on due to the blessings of a computer. I have friends all over the country via email and one in Costa Rica too. There is no need for postage stamps with these friends; we can even send greeting cards via the email too. There is no need for using the phone either; we can give our thoughts, our advice, our love and our knowledge because of the computer.

We can even buy items from the computer and save gasoline, time and travel with the computer. I just five minutes ago bought two pairs of slippers and some support stockings for these aged knees and toes and ten minutes after the purchase is made from online, I get notified that if I spend sixty dollars, there is a ten dollar gift for me in my purchase which I did not know about when I typed in the order. So I had to go to the old fashion contraption known as the telephone and speak with customer service. She informs me that means the next order. I tell her it means this order, she goes away for four minutes and credits me ten dollars on THIS ORDER and so due to the computer, I am ten dollars richer with the credit.

So I am modern, up to date, slim from going online to Weight Watchers, going to own some pretty household slippers, giving my old veins some new support, giving advice to hope to be soon new dancers, giving encouragement to seniors to go out and do great things they have always wanted to accomplish and can still do even at an advanced age, can buy a new dress online without trying it on and hoping it will look as pretty on me as on the model featured in the ad, I can have spell check to make sure my grammar is correct and my spelling is too, I can email my friend in Costa Rica, my friends and relatives in California and Washington State, I can delete a picture on my  Friends column on my Facebook page that was transferred to me and I do not like it, I can get new and tasty and low calorie recipes online sent by friends, I can post pictures of me dancing when I was so much younger and I can post pictures of my grandchildren and send them to my friends as they do of theirs to me and most of all, I am a modern, up to date, senior who really learned to type so well by doing it on this ‘new’ thing called a computer.

Richard was right way back in 1987 when he said to me “Mrs.Clayman, computers are our future.” The future is now, is us and it still is our future. HL Mencken told Dad not to handwrite letters to the editor of the Sunpapers as he did every week because “they make for erros.” We think now he was being facetious in spelling erros for errors. However, Dad would have loved the computer, but then in 1940-1964 when Dad wrote his handwritten with an ink pen, ( no ballpoint pens then either) letters, that was the way to do it, unless you could type and you owned an expensive thing called a typewriter.

Bravo to computers and to we who learned how to use it regardless of our ‘now’ age and we are wiser, happier, more content and surely smarter for doing it.

A centenarian on National Public Radio said “If I had known I would live to be 100, I would have taken up the violin when I was 40.By now, I would have been playing for 60 years.” In her book Defying Gravity, Prill Boyle, my email friend says “ her book is about thirteen women including herself who summoned the courage to explore their talents and pursue their dreams, midlife and beyond and is about hope.”

Guess what, I met Prill Boyle through the Internet when she wrote me up on her computer postings about women who achieve. She herself is an achiever, author and a wonderful person, wife, mom, daughter, grandmother and writer. We would never have ‘met’ without the COMPUTER.

Richard was quite ahead of his own time and ours then. Now we all are ahead of our time in lots of things we do because we are computer savvy.  Dr. Benjamin Carson, the wonderful and famous neurosurgeon said at the end of his book Gifted Hands “Whatever direction we choose, if we can realize that every hurdle we jump strengthens and prepares us for the next one, we’re already on the way to success.”

Hope, strength, success and happiness are then ours.