My computer crashed while we were on vacation. This hurts me more than my lobsteresque sunburn. I’m grieving for it, even praying for it, as
the computer techs try to recover my data. Fortunately, we had two other laptops with us and there were two more computers where we were
staying. (It was a working vacation!) I am using a little web book now, with an 8″ screen and a teeny keyboard. My fingers are clumsy as I try to adapt to its smallness and every other word has a typw, er, typo.

Ms. Jones is adapting to the new economy. Blah, blah, blah ? Aren’t you sick of hearing about The Recession? But it’s not going away. And since you’re a Ms. Jones or Mr. Jones, too, you’re adapting right along with your customers.

What else are you adapting to? A new generation of workers and customers with different standards and stimuli? A changing supply chain? Technology? Global warming?

Adaptation is messy work. Adaptation is trial and error, like learning to walk again. Sometimes we drag our feet, angry that we’re forced into an uncomfortable evolutionary mode. Other times, we run ahead of ourselves and stumble.

I wish the world would somehow stop while I put mine back together. Yet emails zing through cyberspace, caring not that I can’t retrieve them, and my calendar reminders ding although I can’t dismiss them.

The world won’t wait while we decide if we’re going to adapt. Do you have skinned knees, or a stiff neck?