This morning, I have had one of the most thought-provoking experiences relating to technology in my professional career to date. A career which began in the IT industry (as a programmer and then management consultant in 1999). I am, therefore, a great proponent of technology where it facilitates and serves humanity and the creation of a more peaceful, equitable and just world. This morning, my experiences with technology did not at first feel as though they had served to do any of these things – hence my thinking that it may just be time for us to have a very open and honest conversation about the technology we are using. That said, it may be that technology has this morning achieved exactly the aim I always have in mind, in a very roundabout way. It’s all in your perspective after all.
My first task of the day – an attempt to send an email to apply for a committee position for an organisation which I hold in great esteem – failed. It transpires that my email address remains on a blocked list (named spamhaus.org, should anyone fancy a linguist laugh at my expense). Both of my email addresses have been on this list for the last week or two, for reasons my service provider and I cannot fathom given we’ve run the necessary virus/IP checks. My service provider said they would “look into the issue” when I phoned them once again to request their assistance.
After another ten minutes of rather meditative holding on the line whilst listening to the background music of choice for the day, I was put through to a lovely young man. (His voice was somewhat recognisable, so either he was the same person I have spoken to previously, or I’m now speaking to robots with very authentic-sounding, AI-programmed voices – these days, anything would seem possible…). He assured me that he was going to take the matter in hand, but sadly, he could not currently open the resolution ticket they had created on their IT system last week to resolve my issue. Thus, all he could do was apologise profusely for the inconvenience caused to me. I always find it somewhat ironic when a poor soul at the end of an IT phone support line is saying sorry for problems that a technological system, rather than they themselves, has caused. Humans apologising for the malfunctions of the machines they have created leaves me with a little smile on my face. Thankfully, that smile arrived at a most beneficial moment today.
Accepting of the situation – because I’m a huge believer in acceptance of all things just as they are – I realised that there was little I could do regarding my two email accounts at this point, other than wait. Feeling that problems arise so that we may find innovative ways to solve them, however, I came up up with a new idea. I determined I would try using an old hotmail address to dispatch my email instead. I added an explanatory message as to why I was communicating from this old account, saying that I hoped the recipient would be able to contact me at my more usual email address in the very near future – optimism is something I am also a huge fan of. Fortunately, this email flew off into the internet ether without a hiccup. #happytobeahotmailer
Feeling relieved at having had this third email address as a back-up – not to mention a fourth gmail address in the wings, should hotmail ever decide to internally combust at the same time as my service provider is malfunctioning – I was delighted to see an invite had arrived from a client for a proofreading job. The email had arrived some ten minutes earlier. As I logged in to the client’s automated system to accept the work, I received a follow-on email to tell me that the work had now been re-assigned. If I had I already accepted it, I was to unaccept it as it was now no longer mine to complete.
Cue my sitting in silence, staring at my computer screen, and beginning to intone the Nichirin Buddhist chant ‘nam myoho renge kyo‘ (which translated from the original Japanese expression means ‘Glory to the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra’). The aim of this practice is to preserve one’s peace, reveal one’s greatest potential and express one’s determination to bring forth their Buddha nature. Has anyone not yet tried this as a way of handling life’s little challenges, I can highly recommend it. It works a treat.
So, I now find myself with a bit more time to ponder this morning’s occurrences. It seems that the technology that is supposed be facilitating and supporting my professional life has in fact either thwarted my ability to work or caused me to need to participate in competitive sprints to acquire some. I have always been a collaborator rather than a competitor, so trying to coerce me into becoming something I am not by nature is unlikely to be successful. The Nichirin Buddhist viewpoint is that the reason I did not make it ‘in time’ to acquire this latest piece of sprint-to-the-finish-line work is that I am not a competitor internally. Thus my external world will mirror this fact. As within, so without, so to speak. I would concur entirely with that belief in this instance.
I think I shall now consider these recent happenings away from my computer, somewhere beautiful, in nature, like the garden, or my local park. The flora and fauna around me, just like my ‘nam myoho renge kyo‘ chant, deliver time and time again when it comes to facilitating both my professional – and my personal – life. I wonder, therefore, if I shouldn’t perhaps spend this unexpected period of free time considering what future occupation may enable me to use both to good effect. To return to my original comment on perspective, it may be that this whole turn of events was designed to have technology bring about more peace, equality (or should that be equanimity?) and justice in my world – and by extrapolation the collective world at large – in the most surprising of ways.