JEAN LOUIS THÉODORE GÉRICAULT - La Balsa de la Medusa (1818-19)
"Migrations seem mostly uphill …"

I expected to post no new HeadingHomeward Story today because I'm migrating between machines. After 15 hours in migration so far, I finally received feedback about expected remaining duration: 3.5 more hours. I cannot predict how or whether this attempt (4 or 5, I've lost count) will work. I'm assuming that it will stall like the prior attempts have stalled without providing any information about progress achieved. Based upon experience so far with Apple's automated Migration Assistant and a painful perusal of the destructions for affecting a "clean install", I'm not hopeful about ever successfully completing this migration. (The "clean install" instructions are incoherent and uninterpretable.) I dare not update my blog before completing the full migration, since that would put myself out of synch with one of my alternate selves, which would produce further complications including another identity crisis. Further complications or identity crises I do not need.

Rest assured that Apple continues to live in blissful ignorance of how their computers are actually used while continuing to make them ever more similar to their dreaded old adversary the meager PC. Upgrade continues to mean, literally, downgrade. Setbacks evidence progress. Rumors remain the primary means for transmitting critical instructions. Who you know continues to be the critically important element defining success.

Migrations seem to be largely comprised of a transcendent kind of not knowing. Success probably relies upon deep ignorance and tenacious persistence, not merely not knowing but not knowing if you're not knowing or not. They're dedication tests, really. What degree of humiliation am I willing to tolerate on the promise that the "magic" beans might one day sprout into a bean stalk which might, with some harrowing adventure, provide access to an enviable goose capable of laying golden eggs? It's 99.9% fairy tale until it becomes real. By then, the goose might well seem less magical than originally imagined and the reliable old cow, which had been falling ever further behind "updates," might be fondly remembered as emblematic of the good old days before the fall.

Migrations seem mostly uphill but they often represent a descent into ever-deepening mystery. I'm at that point in this HeadingHomeward transition where I'm wondering who I'll wake up being on the other side. Assuming that I ever fall asleep and there's actually another side.

©2021 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #HeadingHomeward, #PureSchmaltz