“Voda-fail” and regret

I just finished a long conversation with Preeti* who, for half an hour, fielded my requests to cancel my Vodafone subscription.

Ah, Preeti, you were perfect: speaking slowly and clearly, yet somehow soothingly, filling every syllable (which was enunciated CRISPLY) with emphasis and sincerity, never losing control.

Preeti seemed genuinely interested to hear what I had to say. SHE CARED.

I’ve been with Vodafone, the world’s second largest telecommunications provider, for a number of years now. Their bills can be hefty, their service non-existant, and yet, I remain loyal.

“Our network is expanding!” “Get ready to fly as well roll out our new 4G service!” “We cover a lot of places!” Like the wife of an unfaithful husband who makes big promises about improving, but never delivers, I am left disappointed.

At one point in our conversation, Preeti actually admitted that she did understand where I was coming from, that if she were the consumer she would consider her options too. Then she said something to this effect, “So…as a token of our appreciation, I will take 15% of your next bill, (that’s 6 dollars) and thank you for staying with Vodafone.”

My beef is not with Vodafone, it is with myself. I did everything the online forums told me (yes, there are online forums just about leaving Vodafone.) Call the tech support team, do what they tell you, “give them the courtesy” of knowing that the problem is with their network and not with your phone, insist, politely but insistently on a cancellation, do not shout.

And yet, here we are, doing, perhaps, the only thing sadder then not cancelling your Vodafone subscription: blogging about it.

I was so close! She offered me the discount, she said “I know that you’re being honest…that you are not joking about it” Preeti! Will you not show me mercy! Will you not let me off the hook!

What made me stay? Was it the fear of the unknown, a “better the devil you know” situation where the prospect of a new company whose ways were unknown to me were more frightening than my own crappy tele-spouse?  Was it my inability to hurt Preeti? If I said NO she might be sad, and she was so nice, so we couldn’t have that. Was it my sense that I was doing something wrong, not finishing out the rest of my five month contract in full, still neglecting to pay my current Vodafone bills, which even now, flash before me like devils in the night?

If I had the balls Telstra would, even now, be meeting my needs. Not taking me for granted. Cooking dinner for me…oh, no, wait, that’s probably a wife.

So to my fellow pushovers, I say: There is no prize in staying with your voda-fail. It is not wrong to leave, they will be fine without you, 50 000 people have done it before (I read that on a Vodafone forum) Trust your gut, and CUT IT OFF! Don’t be like me, sad, lonely, and left only with the naive hopes of what could have been. All I wanted was to check my Facebook feed on the bus! PREETI! Can you not even offer me this? Keep your discount!

My name is Daniel, and I decided to stay with Vodafone.

*Hi Vodafone, this was totally funny right? HA HA! PLEASE DON’T SUE

*Her name was not Preeti

Music matters

Reblogged from Daniel Nour's Blog:

There is so much to make you sad out there, so much that really matters. The anger at the Mohammad video, the ongoing bloodshed in Syria, the upcoming Presidential elections, my end of semester thesis.

Yet, I can't shake this reluctance acceptance that the only things that really "matter" are beautiful things, because there is truth is in beauty. Beauty disqualifies rationalisations and opinions, it simply…

Read more… 501 more words

It's been a while since this was first posted, but I've found myself talking hymns with friends (it's cooler than it sounds, shut-up, you don't even know) so here it is a second time! Please comment peeps.

The Mystery

Christianity is preposterous.

It’s not just the Creator’s participation in this planetary system, the Sol Solar system in the Milky Way galaxy, that challenges you, but His apparent commitment to the sweating, teeming organic life that exists on its surface. God, the creator of the Cosmos is implicated, in the affairs of our particular species, and on such conspicuous, cosy terms.

Matthew 27:36-56, which is fifth of the Sorrowful Mysteries, Christ’s Crucifixion, is the passage that that has struck such a chord in me. In startling, waking clarity, I see that we are dealing with the, well, shocking.

It’s this verse that really struck a chord,

The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. [Matthew 27:38-44 (NRSV)]

Thieves, being tortured, mock the IT, the Source, their maker and the creator of the UNIVERSE…So, you must agree that this isn’t easy stuff, these assertions aren’t a piece of cake. No, this is the Wisdom of God.

C S Lewis in his “Perelendra,” the second of a three part series entitles “The Space Trilogy,” calls the crucifixion of Christ, the “greater thing” of all terrestrial existence, of all creation. On Perelandra (his novel’s planet) a Man and Woman are dubbed King and Queen of their particular earth, living in exalted, glorious communion with God, without having had the manifestation of the maker. They say that,

“To-day for the first time two creatures of the low worlds, two images of Maleldil [Christ] that breathe and breed like the beasts, step up that step at which your parents (Adam and Eve) fell, and sit in the throne of what they were meant to be. It was never seen before.”

Yet, even in their, apparent loveliness, a perfect “Adam and Eve” must assert that,

“…Because it did not happen in your world a greater thing happened, but not this. Because the greater thing happened in Thulcandra [Earth], this and not the greater thing happens here.”

Speak to me, my Creator, about how this earth shattering, time changing event matters. How this “greater” thing, has changed everything. How it effectively tears the veil of time and space, and engages humanity in the pre-eternal life of the Trinity. How God becomes man, and then remains God-Man, thereby exalting humanity forever.

My time here shows me half truths, mist and confusion: it’s hard to see things as they really are. The incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ makes everything new and extends reality from the fakish 2D of cursed, cartoonish superficiality into the thriving splendour of real life: life that you can smell and taste and touch. It’s the difference between a dream and waking, between a sound’s echo and its source, between dim candle light in a dark room and throwing back the curtains to reveal a perfect, shining sunrise.

 ^”For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corin 13:12