Silicone Synchronicity

When my computer goes to sleep at night (usually just shortly before I do) it shuts down the WiFi connection in my motel room and I have to reauthorize it every morning when I get up, pour my coffee, and head to the desk to check my email.

I have to launch my Firefox browser and then sign in. The browser tries to go straight for the main page and, because it has not been set up, I get an error message. This has been happening almost every morning for about a week and a half, but it was only this morning that I actually read - and thought about - the phrase that comes up on my screen when this happens.


It seems funny to me how we (I) tend to miss these little messages that move through our lives on a minute by minute basis... messages on TV, billboards on the freeway, advertising on the radio, picture ads in magazines, even product placement in movies (and now even on Broadway). It isn't even possible any longer to stand in line at the bank or the post office without being bombarded by messages. There are even ads on this page (something which no one seems to bother dealing with as my clickthrough stats would reveal). We learn to filter, to avert our eyes and turn off our ears... we learn to, at least partially, protect ourselves from the inundation of verbage.

By doing this, we also miss the moments of divine inspiration, the synchronicities, that I am really fond of discovering and playing with in the sandbox of my mind.

This morning's message came to me with compelling clarity, at once so funny that I laughed out loud, and instantly so startling that it made me stop and acknowledge the vary basic fact... YOU ARE NOT AUTHENTICATED.

With my computer all I do is click the "login.user" link and type the letter "t" in the box. The password feature automatically remembers the rest of the login - now THERE'S a feature I wouldn't mind having in my personal skill set these days - and I'm ready to go. What came to mind this morning however (just to beat a dead metaphor a little bit more) was the question of what would it require for me to be authenticated in the carbon based world?

Despite the really enjoyable times I have had through the past several weeks, and despite the relative ease with which I have been blessedly carried through this trauma, the basic reality is that I am still locked out, my connections are broken and my communication lines are down. Things really aren't bad. I have a pace to sleep, food to eat, coffee to drink, and... WiFi. I have family, friends and more fun than I deserve. I am, however, still very much out of my element, still not connected, not clear, and not home. I have not been authenticated, and I seem to have forgotten the password.