The Simple Joys

Many of us take for granted our ability to use the computer. This wasn't always the case. Just 4-5 years ago a large majority of average adult citizens had never used computers. Children have been learning computers in school but those of us who had "grown up" and who weren't working with computers had to learn a new skill. And it wasn't the typing we had to learn. It was the little mouse. Learning to control a mouse and get the curser where you want it to go on the screen is one of those hand-eye coordination things. After a few weeks of playing, most of us have become efficient at doing this and it's now second nature. But I was reminded today of the difficulty and frustration level when I was first learning the "Mouse".
I have a friend, an older man with limited resources, who had never used a computer. I had an older computer that no one was using and decided to give it to him. He's not in very good health and getting out of his house is hard for him so the computer is an exciting thing for him to have. I set it up at his house and proceeded to teach him how to use it. WOW! It's harder than I remember.
First the mouse. Move it around until the curser (that little arrow is the cursor) is on what you want to open on the screen. Whoops! One step at a time. No need to move the mouse upside down. Move the mouse like your waxing a car. Wax on, wax off. Now click the left button. Yikes! Click the left button, not both buttons at once or the right button, but the left. Use your index finger. Well, after closing about 10 windows that were accidently opened, he was starting to make progress. Let's try opening a game. Click deal and choose the card you want to move. Hold the button down and drag the card. Wait, not off the table. See the little arrow, get it right on the spot you want to click on and click on the left button. Hold on! Click it just once, more than that and you've got all the cards moving. Okay, that's great!
I have to say that this was one of my more enjoyable days. After 2 hours, I left him happily playing Blackjack. I just went back to check on him. He's still a little slow but since he's been sitting at the computer for almost 4 hours now, he's gotten much more confident. And his face is lit up like a kid at Christmas. It was just a simple thing to do for him and it gave him alot of joy. And I received a gift from him by seeing how happy he is. I'd almost bet that if I went to visit at midnight tonight he'd be sitting in the same place.
Wax on, wax off.