My computer now works perfectly and I am grateful. However getting here took tens of hours, more than a thousand dollars and much aggravation. It all started I bought a new computer to replace my old one which stopped working. The new computer had Microsoft’s latest operating system—Vista—on it.
After I had loaded all the software I rely on daily, strange things began to happen. I could not load my Microsoft Office programs and error messages kept popping up all over the place. First I researched for a solution on my own using the inbuilt help system on Windows Vista but was unsuccessful.
So for the next few days I spent at least five hours each day on the phone with Microsoft technical support trying to fix the problems. After fifteen hours and being transferred from tier one technical support to the highest level of support,the problem was found. My online backup software was interfering and causing an installer file on Windows to corrupt and thus, my Microsoft Office Software would not install. The solution was to disable a vital piece of software that backed up all of my files. Once we had disabled the offending software things returned to normal and now my computer works fine. The difficult, frustrating and time-consuming part of this was finding the problem and so that it could be fixed.
After reflection it occurred to me that there is so much about life that we can learn from computers. The difference between life and computers, however, is that nowadays computer software has been designed so that as soon as there is an incompatibility issue an error message appears. We can then make sure to look up the message in the correct manuals or consult the relevant expert to rectify the issue. How nice it would be if life worked the same way.
So many of us go through life unsatisfied with what we are doing or finding out that we have failed time after time. Often we discover that our relationships have stopped working the way they used to or that we lack the excitement we once had for our work or for spirituality. All of these ailments are a result of a compatibility issue. In fact all problems in life are the result of a compatibility issue.
If one marries or does business with a person who is not compatible with one’s own personality the marriage or business relationship will inevitably fail. But often there are more subtle incompatibilities in life and when this happens the process of finding out what the particular incompatibility is and how one can eliminate it is very time consuming and frustrating process. In fact unlike computers most people do not want to take on the challenge of finding the incompatibility in their lives to begin with, much less go to an expert to help them with the task.
Amongst other things one of the primary roles of religion is to help individual’s live a life which is compatible with the way they were designed. God created mankind and then gave them a manual teaching them how to live a life which is compatible with the human operating system as it was designed by God. That manual is the Torah which contains guidelines relating to every facet of human life.
But so many people feel that they are masters of their own operating system and can fix the incompatibility issues on their own without consulting the manual. They stuff themselves with pills and drugs to make themselves feel better. Some think that the problem is because they do not have enough materiality in their lives so they embark on a round of shopping therapy. Others assume it is because of their body image so they spend huge amounts of money on cosmetic surgery or hours in the gym.
None of these solutions work in the long term. Clearly just like when I had a problem with my computer I immediately turned to the manual provided by the company that designed the computer’s operating system, when one has a personal issue the natural place to look for a fix would be in the Torah. Just like my computer problem, if the solution is not readily understandable from one’s own reading of the Torah the obvious next step is to seek the help of an expert.
So we are I fact more like computers then many think. Just like with computers the way to resolve lives compatibility issues so that we can run faster and smother is by consulting the compatibility guidelines put together by the operating system designer.