At the age of Medicare and just months away from receiving Social Security, I’ve found that I’m a rarity. I’ve never taken any computer classes but somehow through the years I’ve taught myself a wealth of information to get by using this electronic piece of equipment I’m sitting in front of right now.
Like many others my age, throughout my “working” life I was taken on a journey of the early Selectric typewriter, carbon paper, whiteout and those small white out sheets. Then came the Selectric typewriter that actually had a button to back up and whiteout a typo.
One day circa 1985, when working in the La Jolla office of one of the two largest law firms in San Diego as receptionist, legal secretary, mail girl, coffee girl and whatever else was asked of me, I was the only person in the office awarded a computer. Typical of today’s electronics, this computer came with no instructions.
Finding the on/off button was easy. But trying to get all my work done while also searching and finding the earliest version of Word Perfect on a device I was unfamiliar with, figuring out how to use it and then how to print was a different challenge altogether. I remember typing and somehow all my words would be underlined or bolded and I couldn’t figure out why. Becoming increasingly frustrated I somehow stumbled upon an “ah ha” moment when I accidentally hit a “reveal codes” button where it showed all the hidden codes showing everything I’d done wrong. When I figured out all I had to do was go back and delete those pesky codes, that’s when it all started.
I realized that rather than being afraid to press buttons, the more buttons I pressed, the more I learned. Of course, one of the lessons I learned is that if you press the wrong button, you may lose all your work into the “wherever stuff goes abyss.” But that’s also where I learned another valuable lesson … Always save your work.
Fast forward to today. I have learned to adventure my way through cyberspace well enough to understand cloud storage such as Google, Dropbox and iCloud.
I taught myself how to create websites and other online portals. I have created three websites, and have assisted others in doing so. I keep my students up to date using Mailchimp social media platform and, of course, I created this blog and one before it.
“Seva“ is a Sanskrit word that means “selfless service.” At times we are called on to do a duty out of the kindness of our hearts without the expectation of getting anything in return.
During my 4 year service on our local Iyengar Yoga association (IYACSR) board of directors I learned to navigate Eventbrite, a large event ticketing platform for promoting and selling tickets for large events, initiated its social media email system through Mailchimp to spread relevant news to members, and administered its website.
I have done similar work for my teacher – I created her website and keep it up to date, I keep students updated as to all her events using Mailchimp, and I assist her in all things digital, including assistance with Zoom, PayPal and Venmo setup.
In this time of COVID-19 and the ability to teach classes online using Zoom, I’ve set up my yoga studio to effectively stay in touch with my students and also take classes and workshops online. It really is a miracle and an exciting time to be alive.
I also do some administrative duties, legal filings, computer organization, etc. for which I get paid, and many of my friends call on me with support questions regarding anything and everything techy.
But my true passions are my family, most especially my grandkids, my pets and my yoga practice, with a priority of taking care of my 92 year old mom.
Over the past nearly a decade I’ve been sharing my world on this, my personal blog. I never imagined I’d be posting for so many years. Initially I had a very small handful of followers consisting only of my close family. When I traveled to Pune I would gain new followers.
I don’t promote my personal blog. All my readers have subscribed on their own free will, and I have no idea how many subscribers I have.
This brings me to the topic of social media and what that means to us. There are an uncountable number of social media outlets with varying degrees of content, opinions and propaganda. We all have a choice of what we view and what we reject. Just as those of us who post on social media have the right to share what we feel compelled to share at any given time, for any given reason. Although not all content suits the opinion of everyone, the important thing to remember is we all have the option to not read or watch anything we don’t care to see and we can opt out or unsubscribe from any unwanted content at any time.
In early June when I posted content that at the time I felt was compelling, and which I deleted soon thereafter, I had no idea it would lead to me being scrutinized and subjected to backlash.
You see, I never said I agree with the content. I merely said I was compelled to share it. Why? Because our country was going through turmoil after the unnecessary and brutal killing of George Floyd which the person in the video condemned several times. It was compelling to me because it brought up another side of a story through the eyes of an African American woman.
Another favorite Sanskrit term is “Ahimsa” which means non-harming, not killing, and in a much deeper sense, love. I didn’t post that video to harm anyone. Nor did I ever intend for it to “traumatize,” “hurt,” “disappoint,” “shock” or “disturb” anyone.
Please, if there’s anyone reading my personal blog who finds its content disturbing, you are free to unsubscribe at any time. All you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of this post and tap a finger on “unsubscribe.” I won’t know who you are and I won’t miss you.
But if you stay with me, remember this. It will always be …
Blogged on one of Amma’s devices with LOVE.
