STRUNG OUT??
Total solar eclipse? The heat? The time of year? Someone's particular chart or planets? It's hard to say, but all this week I have heard people trying to express their frustration at "technology."
Millie said she couldn't take it any more, that first it was channel 22 and then channel 22-dash-1. We had no idea what she was talking about. Which sort of says what it says.
An article by Maureen Dowd appeared in the local Falls Church News-Press. She wrote about cell phones in "Whirling Dervish Drivers." A sobering piece that points out the "hidden" research showing that there are "negligible differences" in car accident risk whether you are holding a cell phone or hands-free. It is just plain dangerous.
The law in D. C. now is that you can't drive holding your cell phone.
Me, trying to figure out this laptop.
Most of us need help with the gadgets in our life that have become increasingly necessary, and can dominate our lives, overwhelming us, our money and our free time. How could you go without a cell phone these days?? Or a laptop? (Dowd calls us addicts .. she says the tech industry is our drug dealer "Feeing the intense social and economic pressure to stay constantly in touch with employers, colleagues, friends and family," and that drivers found it easier to drive drunk than to drive while using a phone -- in hands, or not.
A Harvard professor of psychiatry, John Ratey, who specializes in the science of attention says that using digital decies gives us "a dopamine squirt."
We're all using them ... we're all worried about their effects ... we're all having the highs and lows ... and we're all having to ask help from others ...
Here are THE TOP 10 THINGS NOT TO SAY WHEN SOMEONE ASKS YOU FOR HELP WITH THEIR TECHNOLOGY
1. #^&$*)%
2. Why do you need it anyway?
3. Read the manual.
4. Okay, when I can get to it ... [and then never do]
5. Why don't you ask ....
6. Don't ask me, I don't know anything about them either.
7. I hate it when someone asks me for help with their computer.
8. If you'd listened to me the first time ...
9. Didn't you ask the ____, or ___, how that works?
10. Why don't you just buy a new one?
The last one is the cruelest. If the person asking you had tons of money they wouldn't be ASKING YOU. They'd be calling ComputerNerdz, or the local equivalent, or JUST BUYING A NEW ONE. (Except that doesn't work either. Every time someone comes to fix my computer, they fix that problem, but screw up something else. I am heartened that now the tech has a checklist before he leaves my office - it works, sorta.)
Anyways, this total solar eclipse is already showing its promise for being a real turning point. I think it was presaged when I went through Breeze/something on my way from D. C. to Chicago, I can't even remember its name, a crossroads, that's all it was - Breezeport, Pa, Breezewood ... it doesn't even show on the map, but you know it's at the crossroads that we exchange all our information.
The solar eclipse should have ENDED something fo you, something that needed ENDING. The "about" lady calls it "this long summer of upheaval."
So now we are entering a calmer time period, emotions are easier and positive, it is easier to communicate ... so why not take the time to help someone today. It's karma, you know. Sooner or later we all need help, so take some time tomorrow to help someone - whether it's opening a door for a person with a cast on the leg, actually giving directions to one of the tourists who has flooded your home town, someone at the convenience store who doesn't speak English, your Mother calling for help with her computer, or your partner needing a back rub.
Put some good karma out there! Remember, during this calmer time period, your emotional intelligence - there are many reasons why it's "good" to help others. Not the least reason being that it makes us feel good. I think it also gives "a dopamine squirt." After struggling for an hour over a computer problem of my own, I went to visit a friend, and her daughter asked me to edit her English paper. I did. Why? It makes me feel good to help others.
Good deeds. Pass it forward.
Speaking of which, for a free mini-reading on results of the Total Solar Eclipse, email me at sdunn@susandunn.cc . New clients only for this special offer. Mention the offer when you email me.
Ever wonder what it's all about, aka why you are here? Email me for a FREE mini-Spiritual Life Purpose Reports.
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