Looking
back on the email trail below, it was exactly 7 years ago -- the black
Friday and a bright Monday... Well, something worse happened to me
today.
After dinner, I
decided to update my iPhone iOS, which I've done countless times over
the past decade. What's different this time was -- my WeChat stopped
working under the new iOS. I had to delete the WeChat app from my phone and
reinstall a new one. Sounded simple, but the implication was
significant. I'd lose ALL my chat history, 9 years worth of history!
It's very different from spending a black Friday, a dark weekend, and
then getting everything back on Monday. This time, it's GONE!!
To
my surprise, I handled the horrifying situation with unbelievable calmness. It really didn't bother me much to lose all the
"history." It immediately reminded me of the episode below from 7 years
ago -- the panic and unease that went through my entire mental and physical systems at the time...
If nothing else, the past 7 years have taught me the importance of letting go, the importance of acceptance and 随缘...
On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 10:03:26 PM CST, Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com> wrote:
Weekend has been very quiet -- living in social isolation sometimes can be a wonderful thing!!!
I
survived the entire weekend without WeChat. My friend and I went to
the city to visit another friend, then Rudi and I went out to dinner
with my brother's family. We actually called my bother to settle on a
place to eat -- everything went back to low-tech communication
channels... It felt great.
To
give you a clue of my reflections of life with or without WeChat, I
bought the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This is considered by
many to be the masterpiece of reflective simple living.
Looking forward to reading the book!
In
the meantime, the first thing I did this morning was to go to IT to get
my old phone back. Came home tonight and found out that my WeChat is
still in my hands -- everything I wrote, everything I have saved,
everything I meant to delete, and... everything to be read and
responded.... they are ALL BACK -- how frightening! Now, for the first
time in 2 years, I have the opportunity to choose my relationship with
WeChat -- what would I choose to do???
Stay tuned, and trust that I will do the right thing!!
From: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
To: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2015 11:53 PM
Subject: Re: The world of WeChat （微信）
I should title this email as "The World without WeChat"
It is hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since I got dragged
into "The World of WeChat." Even though I passionately resisted it at
the very beginning (as evidenced by the email below), over the past few years,
WeChat has become a significant way of life for many people including
myself -- very unfortunate, but also irreversible.
So,
the sad story for today is -- my company decided to take away my perfectly
beautiful iPhone 5s and give me a brand new iPhone 6s. Why??? Because
somehow they believed it would be GOOD for me.
It took IT all day to set up my new phone. For the
entire day, I failed to function at my full capacity because everything I
needed was on my phone... When my lovely new phone finally arrived at my desk, I
shockingly discovered that my WeChat was GONE!! As painful as it seemed
at the moment, after a few hours of digesting the reality, I've gained a
whole new perspective: when you know the VERY FEW important things in
life, you can easily let go of everything else -- it's just that
simple...
I feel totally liberated now!
From: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
To: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 10:58 PM
Subject: The world of WeChat （微信）
I
feel the need to make a record on my history book about a significant
event in my life -- I have finally entered the World of WeChat. After
48 hours of testing the water, I have confirmed that yes, it is indeed a
world of chaos -- it sucks your brain and consumes your life like you
would not believe...
The
truth is, many of my good friends kindly recommended WeChat to me a
LONG time ago. I declined only because I knew it would undoubtedly
interfere with my Zen world. But after my trip to Mongolia, it occurred
to me that this would be an effective way for me to be
in touch with my friends in China. So, before opening the WeChat
account, I decided to only add 2 of my friends from China.
Well,
as we all know, life rarely happens according to plans... What I
learned over the past 48 hours was -- if you get into a group that you
don't want to be in, suck it up -- you're on your own! Yeah, life
sucks, isn't it???
So, for those long-term 微信 lovers, this is for you:
国庆大典上，走来第57个民族。主持人这样解说：现在走过来的是微信方阵。他们身穿睡衣，肩扛枕头，左手手机，右手充电宝，身后背着一锅心灵鸡汤，胸前挂着佛经和养生秘方，个个转发着正能量，自吟着立志经典和闷骚段子，目光呆滞，神情麻木，个别的还在跳大神。主席：“同志们辛苦了！”
微信方阵响亮回答：“主席，天安门 WiFi 密码是多少？”
