blank slates, fresh starts and instant satisfaction

I am writing this post on a brand-new, fresh from the box, the battery isn't even fully charged yet macBook (that's a laptop computer for those of you who do not yet speak Apple). I knew that my business partner would consider it money wasted if I was not excited enough to try the computer right away, although I need to acquire a cable and a certain amount of free time before transferring files from my trust iBook and making this my main machine.

Truth be told, I need the time to think about what I want to transfer.This is one of those pivotal moments: I have a chance to start fresh, free of stuff that kinda sorta works. The computer truly is a blank slate - although this computer is a blank slate that will take care of all my photo/movie/music/internet needs and might even allow me to do some work. Thisis the moment to figure out which of my bookmarks I actually visit, which of my documents can be labelled "archive" and which programs I enjoy using.

It's exciting. My last laptop served me well for four years and is now going to get passed on, not passed over. I look at the words appearing on this screen and know that hundreds of thousands of words will follow them (doesn't that make me sound industrious!). All the work that awaits seems a step or two closer, and I love my work so this is a more-than-good thing. Somehow it also seems that the person I will be as I do that work is also a step closer as my hands move over these pristine keys.

That person is not a blank slate. The web cam captures the lines around my eyes that prove I come with a history, maybe even with some footnotes. The fresh start offered by the computer has significance because it's not really a fresh start for the person using it, because it offers the chance to move forward carrying the best of me, the core of me that knows what I want and what I value, a chance to hope. There is no hope in being brand new: hope requires that we have been treasured and we have been beat up and we know the difference.

Summer is a fresh start every year, a chance to have the right holiday, to get into shape, to take some time and allow our minds to grow blank so that we can fill them with new thoughts. Will your summer give you a lovely mix of excitement and hope and potential? If the answer in your head is "no" then do something about it.

You deserve a not-quite-blank slate, a fresh start, and the pleasure of diving in clean.

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