Day 77
software
A huge part of my office jobs over the years has been to test, purchase, install and use software. It is actually unbelievable to me how many different software installs I have done, and to think about which software has stood the test of time (Adobe Reader, Quickbooks) and which did not (ACT, MSAccess.) I have learned to sense when the problem is not the software, but the limitations of the hardware, and when software is just crap out of the box. I’ve always appreciated describing software as “intuitive” or not. This is exactly what good software is: intuitive.
I also really enjoy thinking about how hardware is this concrete tool that you touch and actually work with, while software is more…well…soft. It is code, we don’t actually ever see it, but we interact with it and command it, play with it, manipulate it, etc.
I’m just going to throw this out there: I think of my spirituality, my rituals and religion as software. It is ephemeral, but I work with it all the time, and I have learned to look for spiritual practices that are intuitive and that integrate well with my hardware—my body, mind and emotions. I think so much religious life is not intuitive and it forces you into ways of working and thinking that feel slow, inefficient, or just ineffective.
I think of the best spiritual practices as being something like Microsoft Excel, which has always been so versatile, so useful in every business or organization I’ve worked with. It also has a lot of depth; beginning computer users can use it just to make and sort lists, but in the right hands Excel is accounting software, or a full-on database. I could describe meditation or contemplative practice the same way; always useful, versatile and in some cases, with certain practitioners, transcendent. But, even if you are just trying it out, you can take a deep breath, close your eyes and listen as the heartbeat of your hardware slows to a nice steady hum.
