Can Humans Go Into Safe Mode

In the long express line in the supermarket, listening to two females talking.

The taller female was in front of a shorter one, who was in front of me surfing on her phone. She clutched a small shopping basket with green grapes, broccoli, and a tray of eggs in her left hand.

The taller one turned around and asked, “have you heard from Susan lately?”

“Almost every day,” she said, her head in her phone as she giggled.

“Will you put the damn phone away!” Miss Tall snapped.

Miss Short nods, then puts her phone in her back jeans pocket after pressing something on the side, and the screen goes black.

“What do you mean almost every day?” Miss Tall barked. “She won’t answer our calls and messaging us that she is in safe mode.”

Miss Short burst out laughing.

“You think it’s funny?”

“Yes,” she agrees. “That is if you know what safe mode means,” she informs.

Miss Tall rocks her upper body left to right, staring at Miss Short, who says, “when a computer is threatened by deadly viruses and other operational issues, to protect itself, it will start in safe mode.”

“What is she? A damn computer?” she snaps.

“You really don’t know a thing about AI and technology,” Miss Short said.

“Girl, I know enough to get by,” she defends.

“Well,” Miss Short said. “It’s noon, you are sober, figure it out!”

Miss Tall stares at her with furled brows, glances behind her, then moves up in the line. Turning around, she said, “I still don’t get it.”

“I am under the impression that when you are sober, you would remember all of your sins, along with the horrible things you and your crew have done to her in the past,” Miss Short ruffled her feathers.

“She never complained before,” she said.

“That’s because she didn’t have anything traumatic going on in her life forcing her to think deep about her life, living, the past and all of the people in it,” Miss Short notified.

“So, you are saying that the death of her husband forces her to think more about life?”

“Hey!” Miss Short cried out. “You understand.” She eased closer to look at her and asked, “Do you?”

Silence pressed the pause button briefly, and Miss Short educates, “trauma forces many of us to reevaluate our lives and the people in it. Then most clean up their lives, removing the viruses, a.k.a toxic people. Meaning. . .”

“I know what you mean!” she cuts her off. “Will she get out of safe mode?”

“Let me explain in detail,” Miss Short said. “When viruses threatened to destroy important information in a computer, it will shut down to protect itself.”

“You said that already,” she snaps.

“The owner of the computer must put virus protection in for it to start working safely.”

“So, she can get better and get out of safe mode?” Miss Tall asked.

“With friends like you and your crew, why? Safe mode is a healthy mode for both humans and computers,” Miss Short said, signaling her to move up.

She glared at her angrily and remarked before slowly moving ahead, “one of these days someone is going to cut your tongue out.”

Swaying her head east to west, Miss Short notified, “Why do you think none of you can do to me, what you did to Susan? I am always in safe mode. All of my virus protection is always up to date!” she eased sideways and rushed towards the vacant self-checkout machine.

2022 was a challenging year for me, and like Susan, I had to go into safe mode to protect myself from the toxic people in my life. Some of them are still fighting to surpass my virus protection. Safe mode is good for me right now. I enjoy it and intend to learn more about myself, life, and how to keep myself safe.

You should join me!

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.