What did people do before cell phones came along? I'm not talking about the great convenience of being able to contact Dad on his way home to have him stop by and pick up some Swiss chard for dinner, or for people to call for help when they run out of gas, or luck, or love. And I don't refer to the tremendous benefit of being able to order a pizza for carryout, get directions to the pizza joint, check the balance on your Visa acct., get directions home and take a picture of the pizza (and everyone laying into it with the gusto one normally associates with prisoners who have broken into the warden's private pantry and are throwing a Crème Brulee feast) all with one little hand-held device.
Not talking about that.
I want to know one thing: all these people I keep seeing in parking garages, parking lots, pushing their carts through the Bag 'N' Save, or strutting through the mall... to whom did they previously chatter before they had a Bluetooth stuck in their ear (lovely image, that)?
Just the other morning at work, I heard a woman in the parking garage at quarter after seven in the yawning telling her friend that she had purchased a large chuck roast at a very favorable price in anticipation of this weekend's festivities. I guess she was talking to a friend. For all I know, the person on the other end was her attorney, or the call screener for Rush Limbaugh, or worse, if possible.
But what I'm saying is, could she not have waited until she got to her desk to share the news about the price of beef? Is solitude so loathsome that we avoid it at all costs, and fill our souls with conversation about the most mundane of topics just to make sure we're always connected to our friends?
1 comment:
I say we need way more time for solitude and contemplation and far less time for "talking about nothing"!
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