Around January 2009, we only had a second-hand computer at home, a gift from a friend, and our sole internet service was through a dial-up connection.
The reasons? On one hand, our financial situation; but the most important reason was our desire to live as far as possible from capitalist consumerism.
However, one day that month, my wife, Terry, came home with a package in her hands. Unaccustomed to seeing shopping packages, my daughter Dorothy and I looked at her with curiosity.
Terry placed her purchase on a table. She opened it. And then we saw it: a MacBook Pro. While she was setting it up, she said these words: “Nobody moves it from here.” There was something in her tone that Dorothy and I knew only too well, which meant nothing less than: “the order is to be followed without question or hesitation.”
The assigned spot for the laptop was a small table in the living room, next to the piano, against a window that looks out onto part of the house’s green areas.
That same day, Terry canceled the “horse and buggy” internet service and signed up for high-speed internet. The arrival of fast internet changed several things in the family routine. Especially mine.
I have always been an early riser, but from then on, starting at four in the morning, I spend a good deal of time at the computer until it’s time to wake Terry and Dorothy for the daily work and school routine.
During the early hours and part of my weekends, I write for various projects I have in mind. These are hours and hours spent sitting in front of the computer, the table, and the window. And as anyone who writes knows very well, these are also those endless moments when inspiration, the right word, or the exact fact won’t come to mind. So, I look outside, through the window.
And what do I find?
A tree.
Exactly four meters from my window, there is a tree. From so much gazing, we have become friends. It is not much different from any other relationship in life: sharing so much time with someone, you eventually become good companions. Hours of insomnia, hours of abundance, and hours of lacking inspiration. Hours of looking at the tree, searching for answers.
This new blog stems from the need to put into black and white a collection of memories, reflections, and ideas that clutter my head day after day. In one way or another, during the day, I “write” about these topics in my mind, but they are soon displaced from my memory to make room for new thoughts. And finally, they are erased from my mind without leaving any “files” behind.
A few days ago, I finished my project on the history of José Gálvez FBC; today, I begin “Confessions to a Tree.” Memories, reflections, anecdotes, and occurrences of daily life will be its central themes.
We wish each other luck as we start this new project.
And it will be a pleasure to have your company.
New Hampshire, USA
October 2011
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wow kewl i remember u and mom plannin to get that it was so exciting but ya the whole getting the computer part gives me sweet memories and i am so exited that soon im getting my iPod Touch! Ya that whole tree thing is really sweet. its nice 2 know that there is someone watching over u and keepin u out of trouble ;) ~Dorothy
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