eRoom of My Own

Okay, we bought the laptop so I could be a writer, so now I will write. 

I like having my own computer space, a place that is all mine, not shared or borrowed. It is the eRoom of my own. Just my stuff, arranged with whatever colors, pictures, set up that I want. The key board is for my fingers. Surely Virginia Wolf would not have shared a computer, especially if she had a new MacBook. I can totally see her with the very laptop that I now hold. I bet she would have loved it. I bet she would have dragged her thumb on the track pad like I do, causing the curser to do funny things that we don’t mean it to do.  But we shall train ourselves to proper navigation.

This is a room that travels with us. We decorate it, we connect to others in it. Sometimes we wander without any real purpose and sometimes we are very focused.  The eRoom accommodates us in all these ways that we are. When I go to my writing retreat, the eRoom will come with me. They will give me my own studio and bedroom, but the eRoom will be my anchor. It will be focused and ready to work. And it will be familiar. 

Familiar is an underrated concept, sometimes even belittled.  We are encouraged to move outside of our comfort zone, to challenge our perceptions and view the world from a new perspective. But let's not forget that the 3 year old moves most boldly into the world when she is able to check back and find her parent there in the background, providing safely through familiarity, allowing the child to move forward with confidence.

Surely as an adult we no longer need the parent right there on the sidelines keeping an eye on us. We are typically aware of our surroundings and changes that we have made. We are often deliberate in choosing to move out of the familiar. Why then is it always such a surprise when we are overwhelmed when taken out of context?  Whether it is a new job or a new town, or a new relationship, it is easy to be taken off guard. Where the heck is that coffee shop that used to be part of my routine? How are things done here? There are things that I didn’t expect and there are things that I did expect, but they seem to be missing. I should have seen that coming. But it’s always the same, I am taken aback. I look for the familiar landmark and it’s not quite there. I can’t even find a Starbucks, whether it was the Kentucky move or the permanent change to Vermont. When you can’t even find a Starbucks, you know your compass is gone.

You want your room of your own, your point of reference as you step forward to the edge. Perhaps that explains the tethered connection to the Internet. My stuff is there, the things I write and the people I know. And now that entire world sits here on my new laptop, the eRoom of my own. At only 3 pounds, it’s a pretty good deal.

Written March 4, 2009