“For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.” ~Alice Kahn

I am not what you would call tech savvy. I live with technology and am curious about it because in business, especially an online business, you have to know something about how technology leads our lives. I love my new kindle because I can carry 50 books with me at once and be learning about love, intimacy, positivity and social media with a flick of a button. I listen to my meditations on my iTouch every morning before the sun comes up, and I can even use multiple functions on my Blackberry. I would be happy to learn how to use an iPhone if Verizon and Apple could ever agree.

But I am the technology for dummies kind of techie. Still, after 14 lessons from my teenagers I can’t figure out how to upload music or photos to my iTouch. I can function on my PC until something goes wrong and then all I can think of to do is turn it on and off and pray to the god of technology to fix it. So last week when my old HP printer was dragging and droning, practically spitting up ink, I knew it was time to trade up. The new model is the ink jet wanna be laser. And it was seriously on sale. I bought the last one they had.

Then the exciting new printer sat in its box for almost a week. No one in the office even dared to open it. I knew that the so-called easy technology was not going to be easy to set up. Today in a moment of surging positivity I cracked the box open. Before it was all out of the box, I can’t even say how relieved I was that I had bought the extra technology package with the guy who walks you through the set up on the computer/phone. Rasheed, the technology wizard in Austin Texas, must have answered my “Are you still there?” 50 times with his easy ” I am still witt’ch ya’ll.” It was music to my ears.

Even when I couldn’t figure out how to plug it in, even when couldn’t find the printer heads, even in the 20 minute printer alignment, even when I had no idea about my own password to the server, he was still there. “I am still wit’ch ya’ll… Here I am going to send you a picture.” The hours passed with him on the speaker phone and me racing from computer to computer trying to get the passwords and the right cords to the right outlets. “This easy technology is not so easy.” I commented. He laughed.

Towards the end of the call, when it seemed like we might actually finish the job, we talked about where we lived, the weather, and natural disasters. He told me his name, and that he wouldn’t think of getting married even though he did admit to a girlfriend. I told him what I did, that I helped people figure out how to make their love sustainable- he laughed. I told him, it’s just like the skills you are using right now, it’s just different skills.

So I gave him the elevator pitch love talk, because I didn’t want to distract him too much from computer number 3. “Here’s the thing” I said, ” in the last ten minutes of anyone’s life, the only thing they are going to be thinking of is who they love and who loved them back. Nothing else matters.”

“That’s true” he said. “The whole reason we live on planet earth is to learn how to love people.” I said.

Then we got back to the important business of passwords and finally after three hours of challenging technological problems we got the breakthrough. The printer actually printed from three different computers. As happy as I was with the printer functioning, what felt better still was that this new technology had a face and a laugh, named Rasheed and I think we both got to learn a little something.