Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Life doesn’t have an undo key. Isn’t that wonderful?

The Ctrl-Z key sequence (command-Z for the Apple universe) is the universal undo command. Type the wrong words? Press Ctrl-Z to remove them. Deleted the wrong words? Press the Ctrl-Z to bring them back. Did something regrettable? Well, you know.

Life doesn’t have an undo key. Too bad. There have been many times in my life when I did the wrong thing, said the wrong thing, or sat idly by with my mouth shut when I should have acted.

I wish life had an undo key, until I don’t.

There have been many times in life when I did “the wrong thing” and everything transpired better than I could have imagined.

A simple example: my two grandchildren (age 7 and 9) were attempting to roast marshmallows. The fire pit was all wrong. We built the fire the wrong way. We needed an undo key to start anew and build the fire correctly.

The two of them stood there with their marshmallows on the ends of their forks trying to roast them over a fire that wasn’t working. They chattered for twenty minutes the way siblings sometimes do when there is nothing else to do. They created a life-long memory instead of roasting marshmallows. Let’s see, life-long memory versus a couple of marshmallows. Hmmm, the mistake led to a much better place.

Simple examples are the best. Simple situations in life are often the most fulfilling. Seems like Ctrl-Z would remove the simple and keep the complex. It’s a good thing life doesn’t have an undo key.