Button Pushing

I've found that at various hairy situations in my life that the solution can often be as simple as pushing a button. Buttons are everywhere. Without buttons, I feel humanity as we know it would not exist and a button-less existence would be a woeful one. From making the "go-up box," go up to buttons that can start cars with only a minute amount of finger pressure, buttons surely make the world go 'round. The button has had a profound effect on my life in three specific instances that come to mind.

The First button pushing experience wasn't actually my experience, but this push of a button by my friend B. had a ripple effect of 4 years. While pursuing my higher education there was a draw to explore every aspect of the University and its' campus. Others that felt this draw and myself would frequently find the empty football stadium particularly interesting for any number of reasons, but one being that the very top was so high up, one could see for miles around. Unfortunately, due to this draw effecting previous generations, there were a few security measures in place to try to make it very difficult for normal adventurers from pioneering all the way to the very top, including multiple 10ft high fences on the ramp leading up to the top. One faithful night our exploring leads up to try to summit the structure but the fences were doing their jobs and we were deterred. This is where B. comes in. There is an elevator that bypasses the fences and the ramp altogether but no one had ever thought to see if it was working. With what I assume was his left index finger, B. bushed the "up" button and low and behold, the doors parted and we had our path to the top. This single event allowed us to have many, many, MANY trips up to the top of Byrd Stadium and also allowed us to conduct a few physics experiments that otherwise would have been neigh impossible without the elevator.

The Second is a similar story about how I couldn't get into a building late one night on the same campus, but this time it was for a legitimate reason, I swear. All the doors were locked but with a quick brush of the handicapped button the door swung open and I got to where I was going. Button to the rescue again!

Today, the Third and most recent button pushing event transpired. I work at one of about a million tax preparation shops in the area and all of our work, as with many professions, is done primarily on the computer. This means of course that if catastrophe strikes and something like, I don't know, the power were to go out, the entire office becomes about as productive as an olive loaf. The apparently unforeseeable happened at about noon. Tax Professionals and their clients who had been entering data for hours were now S.O.L. This included myself. After about 20 minutes of making calls and taking down numbers, the office clears of clients and soon the Tax Professionals joined the rest of the office park on the porch area because, after all, it was a gorgeous day and we all just lucked into a few moments of sunlight. I hear a beeping coming from around the corner. I follow it only to discover a small security console with messages flashing. I can't understand the code but decide to push one of the three buttons. I push it once and the beeping stops. A second time and the power comes back on. We can all resume our normal, Saturday afternoon work schedule. Hooray.

So from assisting in mischief to cutting short a Saturday Siesta, button pushing, to me, is almost a motif of my life. I plan on continuing to push buttons as I come across them. And, although I may not always understand the affect a particular button will have on my life, I can confidently say that all buttons are meant to be pushed.