Why’s and Who-For’s
The problem we were having getting on line was not the phone lines, entirely, or the wind shaking telephone polls, mostly, but in fact an unhappy modem. I discovered this after signing up with a local ISP for a two-week vacation connection that fared as badly as the AOL connection. The next morning I tripped through my Dell computer directory, discovered a folder for the modem, and in it a diagnostic program. I ran it. One of the systems reported a failure. So I called Dell, and 54 hours later, Thomas knocked on the front door of our vacation condo on Kauai. As I had purchased the notebook only last summer, the new modem and the installation were free.
Thomas has been a computer technician covering Maui and Kauai since January, possibly one of the most coveted jobs most of us could imagine. In just a few minutes he had replaced the modem with the new one Dell had overnighted to him, and successfully tested it. But that’s only the beginning of the story, and it’s one that requires a little bit of context.
I believe that there is a larger reality that oversees our lives. When we are on the path, we encounter very few bumps. When we are headed in a wrong direction, we run into obstacles that tend to move us back to where we are supposed to go. A plane might be delayed, a phone call missed, or we might get ill and not be able to make a meeting. There are also those occasions when we are ready to move to another level and we get positive input, often from a guide.
I would like to say that I remember this every time I encounter an obstacle, but alas. When I couldn’t get through to the Internet, I was frustrated, and it took some effort to remind myself that perhaps this was happening for a "good" reason. I argued with myself that the world would continue to spin if I didn’t post a SetonnoteS every weekday. The worst that would happen is that I would accumulate a ton or so of emails and some people who thought that they should hear from me promptly wouldn’t. But hey, I was on vacation; whether they knew it or not.
It took only a few minutes to install the new modem, but Thomas and I spent two hours together, engaged in one of the most intense discussions each of us ever has experienced. Intense in a good sense; we needed to exchange a considerable amount of information, to establish our credentials for a future relationship that --as is increasingly the nature of our on-line world -- would likely be conducted electronically and long distance.
We talked of Stephen Hawkings, synchronicity, and the Big Bang. We drew diagrams and wrote equations. We spoke of purpose and the meaning of life; energy, soul, and out-of-body experiences. Thomas is working on a book and I offered to help guide him with the writing process. For me, already, he is the latest affirmation that when one is on the path, there appear wonderful guides to enhance the journey.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.