So I was reminicing about what my life has been like in IT. If you can think it, I’ve probably seen it over the last 4 years. I’ve seen computers that have been run over by cars, thrown out second story windows, stabbed, kicked, etc. But one of my favorites was a cute story about a laptop that had been completely ruined and was being replaced under flood insurance. How that works I will never know because what had happend to the laptop was not a flood but a cute 5-year old little girl. The mom brought her in when she dropped off the laptop and the little girl began explaining how she was drawing on the lapdop: “I was dust making a piture for bowyow and bowyow got upset cause there’s no wader in da piture if he gots thirsty. And I didn’t wan him to gets sick frum “d-wy-dra-shun” so I got him a cup of wader.” Then the mom quietly picked up the story, “bowyow is her imaginery friend. I think he is supposed to be a dog but we aren’t quite sure. Anyway, I just gotten home from work and she was walking to the table with a cup of water. It wasn’t until I heard her saying here is the water for the piture that I knew what was going on. I went running into the the room but it was too late. I got their just in time to watch the entire cup of be poured onto the screen and hear the sizzle’s as the laptop shorted out. I called the warranty people and told them that water had gotten into the laptop and it didn’t work anymore and before i could further explain they told me to call my homeowner’s insurance. Well long story short, I told them the whole story of what happened and they decided that they would pay for the replacement or fixing of the laptop since it “would really have been a shame for bowyow not to have any water. So here we are.”
I went on to order her a new laptop and suprisingly I was able to recover some pictures and stuff from the fried laptop. And yes, one of those pictures was bowyow: 2 bright pink ovals arranged like a snow man with green squares for eyes, brown stick figure arms and legs, and one big mess of mutli-coloured scriggles for hair. Yeah, scriggles…I said it.
Remebering this story made me think. A little girl had a friend, an imaginary friend, who was upset and thirsty and she stopped what she was doing and got him something to drink. As older people we have real friends and neighbors. And we know when they are upset and in need. Maybe they lost thier job, or the times are rough, or maybe they are just down on thier luck but so often we make ourselves blind to what is going on and turn them into imaginary friends. We make excuses like we are just to busy, or we say it’s their own fault or blame something else. Butall the excuses in the world won’t change that they need help and without it they will short out like that laptop. Maybe they need to talk, or a shoulder to cry on, or someone to hangout and laugh with, or maybe they just need something to drink. So let me ask you… have you gotten your friend a glass of water lately?
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