Newfound Freedom

I did a very brave act yesterday. I did not climb the Devon Tower or anything like that, but I did go for a walk and leave my phone at home on purpose.

My daughter seemed to be more upset about that than I was. She said a left behind phone is something you go back to get and remarked that it felt strange. I thought it felt wonderfully freeing.

That led to my thinking about the role the phone has always played in my life.

I remember when the phone hung on the wall in our house. Just a single black thing with no dial at all. To operate it we just picked up the receiver and a nice young woman would say, “Number Please” and we would give her three digits, my grandmother’s number was 668.

Four of my mother’s sisters worked there. I even got to be in the room and watch them pull cords and plug them into certain holes which left me awestruck and I still have no idea how they knew which holes to plug. In those days the operators had to be single. One of the sisters hid her marriage for over a year so she could still be employed.

I think I must have been born very shortly after the phone was invented. I remember the first time we had a phone with a dial, the first time we had to remember a prefix, ours was ED 5. I remember the first time we had dials.

My first full time pastorate was in a small Oklahoma town. We still had phones we had to crank to signal the operator. I think her name was Madge and we did not bother with numbers at all. I would simply say “Madge I want to speak to John, and she would answer something like “John is at the café, I will get him for you”; best service I ever had. 
I remember when the car phones became to rage. The range was very limited but seemed like everyone who was anyone had to have one. My neighbor sold them and finally just put one in my car for no charge except the monthly fee of course. I scoffed and did not become addicted to that thing for at least four days.

Then came the first portable ones that looked like and were about the same size as the military walkie talkies of old.

Through all of that it never crossed my mind that the day would come that I would no longer own a phone, the phone would own me. I carry the blasted thing to the table to eat, I carry it to the bed to sleep, I even carry it to the bathroom and, if they make a waterproof one I will probably take into the shower.

Well, I have had enough. This is my declaration of independence. I am going to go for a walk and leave it at home anytime I choose.

I have discovered I don’t have to be on an airplane to use the airplane mode switch so from now on I will be switched off during all meals. No friend would call me while I am eating fried chicken and that guy from India can tell me later that the warranty is about out on the car I do not own.

Sometimes I think If you put all of my friends and family in one room, we would text one another and spend the entire time staring at our phones.

If I can win the battle for freedom perhaps in time, I might get the joyous experience of seeing someone face to face and hearing a human voice. I seem to remember that was a warm and fuzzy encounter.