let's forget it

in the early 90's i worked for a couple of guys whom published a zine in san diego. it was racy, alternative and fun. they were certifiably insane. their first issue was supposed to come out and they didn't have anyone to type the articles in. i didn't type either. but, i did have a computer and they thought if we had a scanner and some O.C.R. (optical character recognition) software we could just scan these submissions into the computer and i could put them in narrow vertical columns so that advertisements would fit next to them. well needless to say that was a huge fiasco. the O.C.R. software of the day was tragically poor and it ended up that it was just easier to hunt and peck our articles in. turning lemonade out of lemons, after having bought a pricy scanner and hard drives to fit the rather large files on, i discovered that we could do our own halftones. halftones were expensive and are how grayscale images are created from photographs to be able to print on a printing press--little black dots that are variably sized and placed to give the illusion of grayscale. hence, this was the beginning of my desktop publishing era. at that time there were no books or schools to explain creating halftones from digital files. photoshop didn't have any numbers next to its name and i was in over my head--and didn't realize it.
before i knew it i was scanning all the photos, digitally retouching them, and laying them out in pagemaker along with the hand typed text. i needed more software, hard drives and please please get me a manual! we published a slick san diego based zine that became hugely popular in the alternative, coffee-house, night-club underground.
chef, who could sell ice to an Inuit, and chris, the money man, became even more crazy--if that were possible. we had our differences and they were frequent. chef was on a psychotropic drug cocktail of prozac and lithium. oh that roller coaster was steep. chris was trying to start his own cult of ravers and other lost souls.
needless to say, eventually, i left and started a design business. but the reason for my story is to explain that although chef had no perceivable redeeming qualities chris had one very large one. he had this ability to forgive and forget. i'm not talking like most people can. this was profound. he would say "let’s forget it" over some huge personal or professional transgression and it would be gone--like it never existed. i didn't have that ability and saw it as such an attractive character trait that i strove to adopt it as my own. i still struggle at times, over fifteen years later. but, by the time i can say "let's forget it" i mean it and harbor no ill or begrudging feelings.
i feel so blessed these days with such a wonderful family and life that it is becoming easier to readily and quickly say "let's forget it"

so, let's forget it....