The Saving of HG Wells…

I am the historian of the family.

I meticulously keep records, update photograph albums and save files onto thumb drives…

In painful hindsight I didn’t do a very good job with the last.

I have an external hard drive which I’ve named HG Wells.  It is connected to the Time Machine on my MacBook and runs back up regularly throughout the day, week and month.  I also discovered I could drag old folders from my desktop and drop them into this storage unit thus tidying up my screen and leaving them to sit, quietly, conveniently and safely until I needed them.

My computer was running out of space so I took it and HG Wells to the Apple Store in Covent Garden to get some advice.  I was instructed on how to divert iTunes and iPhoto through my external hard drive thus freeing up space on my Mac.  I did this by myself and after emptying the rubbish bin I freed up 20 GB’s.

“Impressive streamlining,” I thought, very pleased with myself and patted HG Wells.

Of course I didn’t back this nifty little manoeuver up…much to my chagrin today!

As I sit at my screen I am reminded, with each key stroke, of yet another thing I have lost in my  eagerness to rid myself of countless thumb drives strewn randomly about my desk, with disorganised bits and bobs of information carelessly stored in their limited capacities.

When I add all these bits and bobs up I realise, with a sinking heart, that every scrap of work I have saved, all the music I have downloaded, all the photos I have taken since 2006 are forever trapped inside a little black box whose real name is iomega.

Iomega is suffering from fatal internal injuries apparently caused by my careless handling over the years.  It looked invincible in its little hard case closely resembling a hip flask that could be man handled with the best.  I have found out too late that nothing in the digital realm is invincible, crashes happen…only up until now they didn’t happen to me!

How many times have I heard the mantra,

“Back up twice even thrice, just back up, back up, back up!”?

But like hearing the good news,

“Through Jesus alone you will be saved!” until one is ready to receive the word it falls on deaf ears.

I believe Jesus saves, I heard the word decades ago.

But boy was I deaf when it came to backing up my hard drive’s hard drive!

Hearing the word that Jesus saves can never be too late.  But my “back up” deafness has caused the demise of HG Wells.

Iomega sits on my desk, cold and silent.  A green light indicates a flicker of life in there somewhere, but my screen repeats the error message over and over again.

Can Jesus, who has saved me, save my external hard drive too, I wonder?

For some reason I cannot bring myself to offer prayers over this inanimate accessory containing large portions of my life in word, melody and images that wait behind the green light.

How can I ask God to restore something that is only important to me?

Then I remember the Easter message, Jesus saved me by dying on the cross, so I must be important!

I asked hubs on our way home through the graveyard tonight from mass,

“Do you think if I give iomega a couple of aspirin and a hot toddy, he’ll be better in the morning?”

“Undoubtedly,” he said, “perhaps an ibuprofen too for good measure!”

Joking aside,

“Lord, if it’s not too much to ask, send me a genius who can flaunt his skill to the glory of your name and retrieve the irretrievable from my external hard drive and save HG Wells.  Amen. Alleluia!”

Share this:

No comments so far!

Leave a Comment