PARADISE LOST – PARADISE FOUND

I have been banished from the Garden of Eden.

It is more than several years now, since I first tasted the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, a very tempting APPLE… more specifically a Macintosh. Now I must accept the consequences of that act. This past reaction to temptation was solely mine. I don’t remember any snake tempting me, but perhaps it was disguised, in the shape of all the advertisements and comments from friends and relatives wondering why I hadn’t bought a computer yet.

Well, I did and since then the world has been opened to me. Perhaps I have also been exposed to the world. I now have acquired a new language. Listen to the additions to my vocabulary…. cyberspace, Internet, email (not snail mail!), modem, font, hard drive, floppy disk , StuffIt , Zip, megabyte, gigabyte, hardware, software and more, much more.

So, I now choose to consider my position as an addiction in preference to the ancient thought of punishment and of being cursed for my act. I presently wander the world whenever I wish. I find myself in conversation with strangers, I sometimes hear things that I shouldn’t, private talks that are available for anyone who wishes to listen, I correspond with family and friends anywhere in the world and I use no postage stamps. I play games… chess or checkers, for example, without ever touching any checker or chess piece. I can draw pictures and I can even design my own greeting cards! There is no limit to what I might learn as time goes by.

And I write with greater ease. While the quality of the writing itself is not (yet!) judged by the machine itself… I am assured that spelling will be corrected, that I can find definitions of any word I use and that the thesaurus is present and quite willing to share its content with me. I am in control , but I am at the mercy of this big apple which always threaten to CRASH! if I don’t treat it with respect. I must not give it any conflict since it warns me that I could be returned to the Garden of Eden, again innocent and unaware of all the information that is still to be discovered.

There have been many interesting adventures with this apple’s power. Last week I went down a trail called LYCOS (a new path for knowledge) and learned that if I offered my name for a search I might find other Amchin people somewhere in the world. Wow! There were 17 listed, not many but still a surprise! I knew most of them (relatives, my children) but there were some unknown. Two Amchins in France, one in CHINA. I would try to contact them later.

But there was one mentioned in San Diego. The name appeared in the writing of someone who was describing restaurants in that city. I emailed him for more information on his use of the name. Was he a long-lost relative? His email reply was that he had never heard of AMCHIN. I emailed again telling him that the name had appeared in connection with an article that he had written concerning Chinese food, wherein he had preferred “real” Chinese food to Amchin food. I wondered what this was all about and then we both smiled (electronically) with the awareness that AMCHIN food was an acronym for Am-erican CHIN-ese.. American Chinese Food!! AMCHIN FOOD!!

I will eventually try to contact the other “Amchins”, or the Amchans, or the Amchanitskys ,or my wife’s family, etc., etc.

I know that I will continue to taste of the fruit which is available and never return to the garden of innocence… and with my own Eve’s participation in the continuing wandering and discovering, I must now confess. I am grateful to that snake-in-the-grass that got me started on this lifelong adventure.

I thought of this adventure last night when we had delicious AMCHIN food at our local Chinese restaurant.

•Abraham Amchin •