The following news item, adapted apparently from the pages of the Tokyo Sun Times, was sent to me recently by a friend on a teaching exchange in the capital. Given the hurly-burly & stress & strain that is so much a part of our urban lifestyle in the West, we might have much to learn from this enlightened development. Read & reflect…
In Japan, Microsoft has replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Error messages with haikus communicating the same information. There are strict rules governing the construction of haikus. Each poem has only three lines comprising 17 syllables. There are five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third.
Haikus are used to communicate timeless messages, often achieving a sense of wistfulness and yearning and yet also containing powerful insights within their extreme brevity. Herein is to be found the essence of Zen.
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao-until
You bring fresh toner.
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
10:48:21 PM 
|
