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December 12, 2008

I Love You

“I don’t like [him.] He is a bad man, an imposter, a creator of wicked schemes. I wouldn’t speak to him, but, by God, I love him.”
Representative John Calhoun (1782–1850), after getting a helpful vote from a despised colleague in 1812
I said, “I love you” to a tech-repair person the other day. It just sort of popped out of me. To review: Through a combination of user error and computer glitches, I’d thrown away my current project from my laptop. And I hadn't backed up for two weeks.

The good news is that I haven’t broken out in a nice cold sweat since seeing Ringu. That along with the adrenaline and weeping made for a nice change of pace in my day.

User error having led to user terror, I took my laptop down to the local Mac store. They could help save my files, yes? Oh please, oh please, oh please... Of course it was a "rush job.” Aren’t they all?

I returned to the shop the next day, by which time my sweat was a more comfortable lukewarm temperature. The tech-repair person (note the lack of gender giveaway) informed me that the Word documents had been mostly saved. I wanted to say, “I thank you, good tech-repair person.”

Instead I said, “I love you.” Beat.

We both consider this for a moment.

That is, I love you in the platonic way reserved for people who save me from tech emergencies,” I added in a non-hasty or lame way.

The tech person took it in stride. I’m sure they get that all the time there. But as for me, I’m a changed man. And looking at John Calhoun's kind-hearted visage, it’s clear that he too knew about the transformative power of love. After making his quote above, he served as Vice President under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and founded the Nullification Party. (If I remember correctly, its members wanted to make hatred, ill will, and mild revulsion null and void. Oh, and I also blogged about Calhoun here.)

2 comments:

gWhiz.Ralph said...

Better than feedback I hear from GeeK Squad! I think they hear "IhateyouIhateyou I HATE YOU" quite often.

Bart King said...

This is disturbing! People should genuflect when GeeK Squadders drive by.