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Waking this morning to the sound of birds singing, I lay in my warm soft bed with thoughts trickling through my mind. Chief among them; who the hell had woken up those bloody birds, and why the hell couldn’t they keep their blasted beaks shut till the sun was finished coming up??
My normal habit on weekends is to make coffee, and then go stare at myself in the mirror till reality sinks in. I’m still broke, still ugly, and still dumb as a rock. This process can take anywhere from ten seconds to all day… and there’s no telling which way it will go. I’ve got it down to a strong shudder and a wince, whereas I used to have hysterical screaming fits each morning as the harshness of reality chased away leftover dreams of competence.
Once the coffee is ready, I slowly begin increasing my blood-coffee level till my eyes open without tactile assistance, and eventually manage to focus on approximately the same plane, if not the same exact spot.
About then, I am ready to fire up F.R.E.D and enter a part of my world; the online part where most of my acquaintances and all of my friends reside. That is, I do so on the mornings when Frontier Communications can pull their collective heads out of their misbegotten butts long enough to actually provide the service we pay for. Frontier… the company whose customer service ratings place them second worst in the nation, but only because Comcast just tries so much harder. Frontier Communications…who has a policy of unconcealed hatred for customers, and a total aversion to unhindered communications amongst the same.
Frontier Communications… who has left me cut off from an important part of my world.
I have heard the Internet can be dehumanizing, and to that I say… well…bull. How can it possibly be considered so, when in fact it’s turned into the greatest communications device ever? What was once an ARPA dream of interagency links has become a living, breathing, organism composed of people. Individuals plugged in and making connections with those around them, and doing it on a scale unheard of to previous generations. A person’s network of friends, acquaintances, and loves can now expand beyond the next street and move out to the entire world. It was always so for a few, but is now available to the many.
Left bereft of this link by Frontier’s subhuman service, I was forced to back up and examine my world and the people in it. Yes, I have my career, my students, and my life here in all it’s richness. But… my connections on the interwebs have become at least as important, and often more so. I discovered life… and chose to live… because of the human connections I made here. People I discovered ‘out there’, who have become important to me and to my life.
Nothing drives home the importance of something so much as losing it, if even for a short time. Frontier, slithering pile of unmentionable excrement of a company it is, has made that lesson very clear to me. By regularly shutting me off from an important part of my life, they have shown me just how important it has become, and how important the people who make it come alive, are to me.
4 comments:
This is one of the classiest rants I've ever read!
And, your comments post below is wonderfully informative. Your teaching skills are glowing. Kudos!
Has the carrier pigeon arrived yet?
I went to backup plan.
Lot's of energy spent on that rant...
anyway, my daughter, Alyssa, would like to know how you came up with "Bear on a Bicycle".
Jean, Thank you!
Brigid, Yes, 'twas tasty too!
Judy, Energy? Naw... just a few minutes of laughing quietly to myself as I called on ancient Gods to crush their tiny little corporate structure. (g).
'Bear on a Bicycle' is a phrase we use at school on occasion, amongst a few instructors. It's a reference to silly circus-like happenings that are all show, and no substance. Like, when a senator or an ambassador wanders through with an administrator in tow.
"Look, It's a Bear on a bicycle!"
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