One of those days

We all have one of those days. What am I saying?  I don’t know if “we all” do or not.  I know that I do.  And that’s enough to know.  And how unnerved I get when my day –or equilibrium or calm or timetable– is    derailed.  For some time now, my team and I have been planning the launch of the new-look terryhershey.com website.  When it comes to technology, especially the learning about part, you may as well go ahead and sedate me.  I have not yet mastered the fine art of patience with new machines, or even the penchant to learn.  I feel lost somehow, born in the wrong century. . .or, at the mercy of.  “How did you do that?” I ask my 12 year old when he works on his computer, and he gives me the look, “What planet are you from?”

I live by the Woody Allen rule, “If anything can go wrong, it will.  And it will be worse than you can imagine.”  And true to form (pessimists are seldom disappointed), things had gone wrong.  My email account had been purged, and I was in cyber-no-man’s-land.

Worse yet, you never know when this feeling –world and life “on tilt”—will strike.  Yesterday, we’re spending Memorial Day in a garden store / nursery and a bookstore and an Apple store.  Checking out –or being willingly seduced by—the i-phone and the new touchpad.  Lord have mercy.  In these stores, I see so many things I know that I do not need, but cannot live without.

“You will like the apps,” the young employee tells me.

“Really.  How many are there?”

“A couple million.”

“Million?  As in capital M?”

“Yes,” he says as if this is a good thing.

“Do you have one for angst?” I ask.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to look.”

On the i-phone I see that my email is not working, and feel the crush of too much information, anxiety rising.

“I suck at Zen,” I told him.

“Excuse me sir?”

“You know, the art of being calm.”

“Oh.”

“I’m also not very good at centering prayer.  Or considering the lilies.  Or going with the flow.  I’m even worse at yoga.  And Pausing, don’t get me started.  Have you ever heard of The Power of Pause?”

His eyes are glassed over.

“No sir, I haven’t.  Listen, I may need to help another customer now.  But if you need something, just let us know.”

Apparently, there is no crying in an Apple store.

No emails.  That’s such a simple thing.  What about the people who are truly derailed?  People along the Gulf Coast, as the oil spill threatens.  The villages wiped out in Guatemala.  My friend in Mexico, whose daughter was killed, just yesterday, by a gang bullet.  When life is, quite literally, on tilt. . .

My anxiety hardly compares.  But it’s a continuum, I suppose.  You know, the one-day when we all come face to face with the reality that the world feels like too much.  So what’s the solution?  I don’t know.  But after today, I’m sure there’s an app for it.

Here’s what I did.  I returned home from the city.  I mowed my lawn.  Filled my bird feeders.  Pulled some weeds.  Cut some Aquilegia–regal purple—for the dining table.  Poured a glass of wine.  And watched dusk settle.

With regard to the site.  Visit it.  But it’s all new. . .so, by all means, if you find a bug, a typo, or something that need attention or fixed or whatever, please let us know.  Email us customerservice@terryhershey.com

You never really play 100%, as in sports, as in life. Nelson Mandela, in the movie Invictus