An error message that I’ve often found too frustrating.

What if it’s open? I want it gone anyway. It can simply close itself and move right into the Trash. What’s all this fuss about?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s kind of what I had been doing with my own self. With my feelings, thoughts, insecurities, memories, relationships. With everything. When I run out of ideas on how to resolve the mess, I’d mentally click that “delete” button, and wait for it all to jump into the Trash. Fun fact: nothing ever did.

Because that’s one thing we, as humans, might be sharing with laptops.

They can’t delete open items, because they’re always in the middle of processing something. They can’t just quit midway, because they might need to step outside and assess the situation clearly. They need closure. They need to understand if moving them to the Trash might impact some other part they hadn’t figured out earlier. They need to make sure they’re not getting erroneously deleted while they’re actually needed. They need to heal from having been so actively involved in a process that might’ve been draining. They need to know they have a chance to breathe, even if it’s for a second, before the next quick decision is taken. They need to ensure that nothing would interrupt the process, so that when they get deleted, none of them would be popping back up for no reason.

And maybe, I have something to learn from my laptop after all.