Maryl writes: A Start Over, A Clean Slate

I have several friends who are writing books…..their first books. One is giving me her manuscript to read soon. She won’t tell me what it’s about. I’m looking forward to it but afraid I’ll recognize myself in one of the characters. We worked together at several companies. I think she’s getting back….not at me but at them. Oh well, I’ll be brave.

Anyway she called frantic because her laptop was getting a bit fluzzy on her and she needs to finish this draft by Sunday. She’s had her computer since two jobs back. It was time. She called back quite thrilled. She bought an Apple Macbook. She went back to that operating system remembering how much she liked it when working at an advertising agency. Her subsequent corporate jobs pushed her into the PC world.

But even more poignant than what system or brand she had bought was that her excitement seemed to stem from the feeling she was starting fresh with a clean slate so to speak. It seemed kind of like getting a new binder or notebook the first day of school. You hadn’t made any mistakes yet; you could only do good and you were going to ace this class.  So knowing my friend I’m sure she left a lot of  baggage on her old hard drive and is making a fresh start this coming semester.  That’s a second life….not a do over, another start over.  I can’t wait to read her book.    
  
Is a new computer really a symbol of a second life? Something to think about…..
   1) Hm, Apple or PC? Which operating system to buy.
   2) Everyone has a book in them.
  3) Cynthia Cooper got back in her book, "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower"!