Restart

Who hasn't had this happen to them? After hours of putting up with unbearably slow internet speed, after blaming the phone company, the last family member who touched the device and the sales clerk who sold it to me, I call technical support, but, on the other end of the phone, no one answers as one would wish.

You would want a telecommunications engineer or cybersecurity expert to apologize for a worldwide network meltdown or to help you reconfigure the TCP/IP protocol on the computer that the child has misconfigured or, if anything, to explain that the manufacturer of your device had reported a manufacturing flaw in that model that caused the browsing speed to drop considerably. But no. Instead, a typical callcenterAfter giving me the usual data protection talk, that the call can be recorded and that in the end I give him a nine in the evaluation, he tells me as a solution to the problem:

-Have you tried rebooting the router?

-Sorry, maybe I didn't hear you correctly. Reboot the router? That's it?

-Don't worry, it will only take a minute. In fact, I'll reboot it myself from here.

As I listen to the operator type, still not getting over my astonishment, I ask him:

-But hey, isn't this more of a global apocalyptic glitch? haven't you checked to see if there has been a solar storm that has impacted the Earth's electromagnetic field affecting every electronic device in the world? are you sure it's not a problem with my IP address or some interference in my wifi network?

And just when I finish saying the "fi" for wifi or the "fai" for "waifai" as our Spanish-speaking friends say, the computer suddenly recovers all its processes and starts running like Usain Bolt in the Berlin 2009 World Cup.

-Did you get the connection back, sir? -The operator continues, "Is there anything else you need? Don't forget to rate my service with the highest score if you found it useful, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Humiliated, crestfallen, downhearted, depressed, depressed by such an easy solution to my big problem; I say goodbye to the nice guy, listen to the score locution, say "nine" out loud, repeat "nine" again with better diction because the machine did not understand me right the first time, and hang up.

It seems incredible that a problem as big as the one I had set up in my head could have such a simple solution. Turning off and on any electronic device fixes 99 percent of the failures. They tell the joke that, at the end of the computer engineering course, a professor gathers all the students and reveals the great secret: "and the summary, ladies and gentlemen, of what you have learned in all these years is: reboot".

There is nothing magical about this trick of every good computer scientist. When rebooting, the microprocessors forget the error commands they received, reload them, and make everything from the washing machine to the smart TV, from the microwave to the cell phone work again as if nothing had happened after hours of despair from their users. Rebooting saves us from costly repairs, and it's so simple! But, believe it or not, sometimes we forget and it takes the experts to remind us.

We people also need to reboot ourselves from time to time, and this last day of the year is an unbeatable occasion. Because we have all made mistakes that have caused small or large cracks in the system. There are processes that no longer work well with certain people and loops in which we have got into and from which we cannot get out. Failures leave their mark and prevent us from continuing with business as usual. That is why it is important to recognize our mistakes and ask for forgiveness for them.

I am not talking about asking God for forgiveness, that too; but to the people we have around us and whom, in the daily friction, we surely hurt in one way or another. Asking for forgiveness does not make us smaller but bigger because the wisdom that comes with knowing oneself and one's own mistakes is not within everyone's reach. The ordinary thing is to believe that it is others who are wrong and to blame others for what happens to us.

So, at the beginning of 2024, I take this opportunity to apologize to you, dear reader, if I have offended you in any way with my words. I apologize for not having been more incisive in my denunciation of injustice, for having tiptoed around issues in which I should have been more involved, for not having sufficiently defended the weak, for having sought myself out and been cowardly, flattering, arrogant, vain, complacent, iniquitous, naive... Add any negative adjectives you think fit, because they will surely be true, and forgive me for them. I will try to do better this new year, with your help. That is my New Year's resolution.

And if you also want to start 2024 on the right foot and at full speed, you know, restart. And don't forget to give me a nine for your rating at the end of the voiceover.