How would you remember the time that ‘digital’ was introduced into the world? It was the time when the world switched from a system of ‘a bit more’ or ‘a bit less’ to something much more exact. It’s easy to say yes and no, or on and off in the digital world, but it’s much harder to say “make it just a bit warmer”  or “a bit colder”. In the digital world, you have to make up your mind. Either the current is on, or the current is off, that’s how computers work at the end of the day. My lecturer in Trinity College (my secret is out now!) said that computer programming wasn’t really for women because they could never make up their mind. That was, you will have guessed, a few decades ago. If a lecturer said anything like this these days, he wouldn’t last long in his job, no doubt.

There is another side to the digital world, and it’s got to do with our dependence on machines.

It is really terrible. Truly. When I get into Pádraig’s room, one of the first things I do is to look at the “Vitalwerte”, the figures on the machine that monitors his vital signs: heart beat, oxygen level, … That’s what machines do to me. They are really in the way. I don’t want them, they are a distraction, and the cables that connect you to them are like tentacles that won’t let you move freely.

Today, when I came in to Pádraig’s room, the same thing happened: check the machine, check it again – well, it must be broken. After a week of values for his heartbeat that were quite a bit higher than what we had seen for months, today his heart was beating slower than mine. Only then did I look at Pádraig. And he looked so comfortable, so relaxed, that I thought, “maybe the machine is right?” I let him rest and waited for Pat.

He woke up slowly, and seemed to be so much better than he had been during the week. So we decided to get him back into the wheelchair and out onto the roof garden. And it worked. His arm is still swollen, yellow and black, but the pain seems to have gone, mostly. He even opened both of his eyes today, something that doesn’t happen that often. Eating doesn’t work that well yet, but I’m sure that will come back as well.

Today was a good day.

Today’s German Music Tip
Hörbie Schmidt Band, Aus dem hohen Norden. This is one of the bands that played in Lütt Matten over the past week-ends – only that the setting in that ‘Kneipe’ is so much more intimate and nicer than the stage from this clip from the Grenzen sind relative Festival in Kiel. A nice touch is the screen in the background showing the text, as well as the sign interpreter. “Lust auf Leben ist wunderbar.”
What’s hot
Heartbeat, in the correct range
What’s cold
Heartbeat, too high, too low
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Dialogue in the Ruhr Valley:
(1) Wie is? – (2) Muss! – Und selbst? (1) Muss auch!