5 September 2003
Question
I haven't been receiving your weekly emails recently. Is everything alright?
Answer
Yes, thank G-d, everything's fine with me, but my computer has had a virus, so I was unable to access my address book to send the weekly email.
But since you mention it, the mystics teach that we must take spiritual lessons from everything that comes our way. So, what can we learn from a computer virus?
1) We are all connected. I am sitting at my computer here in Sydney and all's well, until an old friend on the other side of the world gets a virus in his computer. Because my name appears in his address book, I become a victim as the virus enters his computer and sends itself to his entire list. So I get the virus just because he did!
We are all in this world together. I shouldn't fool myself into thinking that someone else's problem is not my problem. Their pain is my pain, and another person's happiness is inextricably linked with my own.
2) Every little detail counts. When I see a strange email in my inbox, I have a choice to make. With one click I can delete it and avoid the inconvenience of an infected computer. But if I click on the wrong spot, it can cause an avalanche. It was just one little click, but the results were enormous.
So often it's the little things that mean so much. A friendly word or a phone call just to say hello can impact someone's life in ways we can't imagine.
3) We can change the world. Every virus starts with one idiot. Someone somewhere has nothing better to do than engage in virtual vandalism. And from that one person's destructive plan millions of people the world over are affected.
We sometimes feel that our petty little lives are insignificant in the whole scheme of things. With so many people in the world, what difference do I make? The computer virus teaches us that no matter how small we feel, each one of us has the power to change the world. And if so much damage can be done with such little effort, how much more healing and positive energy can be created if we put our minds and hearts to it.
That's what we can learn from my email that was never sent.
