When my son Freeboarder told me I was a ‘computer beast,’ I felt like Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away when he yells on the beach, “I have made fire.”
Freeboarder was psyched because after struggling with loading Windows on his iMac, we finally achieved internet connection on the Windows side of his hard drive. The saga involved four trips to the computer store, stops at Subway for supplies in the way of food, three lengthy conversation with ATT, and a snowfall.
In Atlanta snow is a big deal. We were in the thick of computer hell when I looked up from the monitor and said, “hey, it’s snowing!”
“I know. It has been for almost twenty minutes,” he said, deadpan.
We were both exhausted from talking to technicians and installing software, and the snow stayed in the periphery. We read in one of his manuals a step he had left out, so finally the problem was solved. Today he can play Warhammer on his iMac, and he’s happy.
Last night my husband and I watched Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie. It’s about a mother who is treated with terrible cruelty by the police after she reports the disappearance of her nine-year-old son. John Malkovich plays the part of a Presbyterian minister who befriends the mother and helps her in her dealings with the police. The movie, set in the late twenties, shows what little power women had then. Jolie deserves her Oscar nomination for the role – she played the part of the mother very convincingly. Of course it doesn’t hurt that she looks like Helen of Troy.
After the movie I went downstairs to say goodnight to Freeboarder, and gave him three big hugs and a kiss on the cheek. After watching a mother’s agony over losing her child, I felt particularly grateful to see my own son with his eyes glued to the computer screen. And he suffered the hugs with magnanimity, sweet kid.
Balanced On the Edge 
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