Barricaded In or Out?

Does anyone go to the library anymore? I did! I needed a quiet area to do some work. The big problem is there’s always someone whispering right near you. Did you ever notice that? And in most cases it’s the librarian.

So I decided to go to the quiet room. Well guess what, they took the walls down! What part of quiet does that offer?  Seriously it’s like the emperor’s new clothes.  There is no actual separation between that and any other area of the library, except that it’s separate.  Therefore, if there is any noise you hear it.

Maybe the idea is it offers better air circulation. But if I’m looking for air, the library certainly wouldn’t be my first stop anyway!

Did you ever notice that these days you have access to internet, practically everywhere.  That is, except for 2 places, -where you are at the moment – and in your home, the very place you actually installed it!  Everyone’s going around looking for bars. You’d think we all escaped from an AA meeting. Everyone’s walking around asking, “Do you have a bar, do you have a bar”. I’m busy telling my kids that bars on the corner are bad and they’re telling me they are good! What a role reversal.

And can we talk about passwords for a minute? You set these up, often under duress, supposedly to protect others from having access to your information or equipment. However, I’m sure, you know as well as I do, that the only person who usually can’t get back in, is you. Who can remember all of these passwords.

And when you forget them they give you a hint.  But once you get it they won’t let you reprogram with the same password.  When you try to set a new one up they say it’s too similar to your old one. Well, that’s the idea! The reason you can’t remember it in the first place is because the first time they reminded you of it, they made you modify it , and now you can’t remember which version of it you are using.

I practically can’t buy any items on line, anymore. That’s because anywhere I’ve shopped before, I can’t remember the password I used.

Everyone can shop if they never shopped there before, but you! Since you can’t remember your password and prove you are you, you can never shop there again. Why do they care who I am? They don’t keep me out of Banana Republic or Forever 21 if I don’t know some secret password to walk in to the store.

I have to find a new identity just to shop at some random store that I visited 2 years ago because I can’t remember one of 2000 passwords I’ve used in the past. I thought my name pretty much use to identify me as me. But now, that has nothing to do with who I am. If I can’t remember a series of letters, numbers, or words, I can’t use anything of mine!

Imagine if my husband wouldn’t take my calls, until I remembered my password, we’d probably never speak again. Thank goodness he’s still letting my calls through based on by my first name- even though I’ve have used that before!!!

So back to the library. There, where it makes sense to have an area of privacy they’ve taken down that nice glass wall that use to keep the noise out.  But everywhere else that you need to get access to, they put up barriers, maybe if I knew the right password, some invisible glass would ride up from the floor and close off a quiet area for me. Ok, I bet you’re thinking, oh please, that doesn’t exist.  Well rest assured, we’ll never know because I’d have an easier time actually constructing a wall then remembering one more password, anyway!

Note: The password to access this article next week is LOL123 and your birthday. Followed by the # sign and an access code to be delivered to you by a random stranger collecting for your favorite charity. Have a great week. And should you forget the password, don’t worry; the article will be preserved in an archive at your local library!

Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com<mailto:rivki@rosenwalds.com

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