Instruction Manuals

Settling down with my new iPad, I felt like Lewis and Clark. Here was a world I knew little about, and was about to explore all by myself. I had foraged through all the easy stuff. Now it was time to tackle the real reason for buying the iPad. Even my computer guru Brian had emailed asking if I had tried the word processing program yet. I had had the iPad nearly one full day and only had a 2 week trial period. If the word processing application stank (or is that stunk...? I can never get that one right.), then I would have to return the iPad, even though I had already downloaded 8,000 photos onto it successfully over the course of several hours. I wrote my guru back, "Not yet. I am still trying to figure out how to delete email, or find the back button." The guru left me alone, at that point, likely deciding that if I still hadn't found the back button, then maybe technology like the iPad was not the right venture for this writer. Maybe writing with my finger in wet sand would be more my speed.

However, undeterred, I decided to plunge on, although frankly, I never did find the back button. It is there for some applications, but not for others. First I read over the help manual for Pages, which is the word app I had bought. I only read over the manual in a cursory way. I like to fiddle with things to figure them out, and noting the success of finding the back button, you can see how well that works for me. I was surprised that the day before, when I had spoken with 4 different Apple Care advisors about the things that confused me with my new iPad, every one of them ended the discussion telling me that they were sending me the free download for the iPad manual. Even Asherel walked by and suggested I borrow Grandpa's IPad for Dummies book.

O Ye of little faith!

I read just enough of the manual to get me started. My second book is in review right now and should be published by next week. I have been waiting for the iPad to work more on book #3 because working at the desk computer hurts my wrists. I found that working with a small keyboard on my lap, seemed not to aggravate the swollen tendonitis in both wrists. So I first discovered, totally by accident, that with one button, I could send my document directly to Pages. And then I began playing with it all afternoon.
One of my criteria for a great word processing app to write my book is that it be able to number the pages. I know that seems like a little thing, but it is the one aspect of writing that I can always have just the right word for: 1, 2, 3, etc. I count as well as Shakespeare, so I wanted that capability desperately. Not a single word processor for the Galaxy tab I had returned allowed for pagination.
"Yes but Mom, this one will," Asherel told me confidently.
"How do you know?"
"Mom, it is called Pages."

So I fiddled and fumbled and could not put pages on my document. My heart was breaking. My needs in life are really quite small. A haircut that makes my little head appear human, comfortable shoes that don't make my children laugh at me, and a word processing document that lets me number pages. There are a few others, but those loom large in my daily life.

I was ready to call Apple Care and tell those nice young advisors that while they had been the best customer service employees I had ever known, I would need to return the iPad and sever our burgeoning relationship. And then, I did a last ditch maneuver, a desperate maneuver even. I read the instructions. And in those instructions there is a section labeled, "Numbering Pages."

You may be laughing. Don't worry. I am used to being ridiculed. But I would hazard a guess that many of us never touch the greatest instruction manual ever written. Or if we do, we give it a cursory glance and presume we know enough to get on with life. I am always struck by the magnitude of exaltation the psalmists seem to possess when they write about the Bible as a guide. It is described as a path, a light, a delight, truth, and even Love.

"I did it!" I cried out, and my family looked my way.
I leaped from my chair and swirled joyfully.
"I can number pages! We will keep the iPad!"

Psalm 119:105
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my soul."


-Everything is possible with God