Can a broken thing really fix itself? I like to think so. That weird shimmying alignment thing that happened on sharp left turns? Gone. That unnerving clicking noise my computer used to make? Gone. My leaky showerhead? Huh, it's fine now for some reason.
I want to believe in this because a belief that things can fix themselves is a vote against entropy, a vote against science and logic and loud shout for the idea of "good luck" or something. This naive hopefulness is probably a diirect result of my lack of mastery over the technical workings of these things...a return to superstition...where I need to make sacrifices to appease the Water Pump God and pray to the Microwave Oven Elves because bad things just happen for no reason in this world so why can't good things too?
Ultimately there is probably some confusion between the symptom of the broken thing and the broken thing itself. The shimmying thing has abated and the shower isn't as drippy but does that mean the problem is fixed?
I hate to admit it, but probably not.
8 comments:
This could also be signs of split personality syndrome: perhaps your other personality is an all-around handy man. I see shades of Sibyl in your future.
Actually for me when things fix themselves it just about means they are on their last legs and break down irreparable a short while after.
Rather than submit to reason ("I'm listening to reason!" Pee Wee, in Pee Wee's Big Adventure), I feel you should start compiling evidence that things fix themselves. Listen, if I take my car in to the shop to fix the "check engine" light, and it's fixed for exactly 7.5 days, do I say that it wasn't fixed for those 7.5 days? No, only that it's broken again. Just because the shimmy fixed itself for awhile doesn't mean it wasn't fixed. Give the car some credit! It's not a genius! Did it go to car repair school? No. It's just doing the best it can. Things do fix themselves. It's just that most things are amateurs at self-fixing. This is the quixotic nature of the universe.
Given that you, somehow, know how to help things fix themselves, can you give me some advice on how to get the house to repair itself? The moulding, for example, just won't paint and hang itself. Can you help me with that?
Being the ultimate unhandy-man myself, I appreciate this post.
Not fixing something and having it get better on its own is the only winning scenario.
Do broken movies fix themselves? Does Crash suddenly work? Does Garden State suddenly become funny?
Surprisingly, yes, theorris. For instance, after apparently having killed comedy single-handedly according to all mankind, Ishtar upon viewing was actually quite hilarious.
I second that, Lisa B. Ishtar is HILARIOUS. Really really brilliant.
I saw Ishtar when it came out. I recall thinking at the time that Hoffman and Beatty were pretentious prigs, but I didn't mind the movie that much.
Post a Comment