So I recently moved from southern Brazil back to California.
The first order of business was to set up an office space from which I could
continue working. I brought my laptop
with me, signed up for an internet connection, assembled a desk I purchased
from Staples, bought a second monitor and I was ready for anything the move or
the job could throw at me. Or so I
thought.
The second order of business was signing up for some sort of health
insurance. I chose a plan, sent them the
application along with a sacrificial offering from my bank account and I
thought I was good to go. Not so. They requested I send them an explanatory
letter for why I was entitled to enroll in their precious system outside the
regular enrollment period. The move, of
course, qualified me for the enrollment, but the explanation had to be sent either
by regular mail or faxed to the insurance company.
The requirement of a letter highlighted the problem that I
had not bought a printer. I didn't think
I would need one any time soon. I’m a
reasonable person and I consider the whole situation when looking for a
solution for a problem. I had several
choices. I could print the letter to pdf
and take it to a print shop, have it printed and post it on my way home. Straight forward and simple, I thought. Or I could take the pdf to Office Depot, have
it printed and faxed all in one trouble-free transaction. I considered that they might even be able to
fax the file without printing it first. And I could take the word document to the management
office of the apartment complex where I rented and they could easily print and
fax the letter for me. In short I had
several choices to send this letter.
As I was pondering which solution would be most convenient,
I spoke to my mother wondering which she thought would be easiest. If real life came with a soundtrack, as it
should, this is where we would hear ominous thunder in the distant background. My mother calmly said: “It’s a letter, you
know you could write it by hand, don’t you?”
Once I managed to convince myself that life has meaning,
that I am a capable and useful person and that I should not throw myself out
the window… I went out and bought a printer.
