Soul Sucking Cell-Phones!

I have a cell-phone. My cell-phone and I have this really cool relationship in that I keep it turned off most of the time, and when it’s on I usually ignore it. That is unless it is someone I need to talk to. (Of course that is all predicated on the fact that I actually have it on me, which most of the time I don’t.) See, I am kind of weird in that I actually just sort of like to “talk” to the people I am around. I know it may be weird to some of you, but trust me it makes sense to me. Sure, I turn it on when I’m in the car by myself. But if someone is in the car with me I turn it off because I like to be available only to them at that time. Now, I may miss an important “call”, or I may miss what could be called an “emergency” call (although honestly I never have missed a call that could be categorized on either of those fronts). But I have this simple, primitive minded belief that (just like the camera) the phone was created to capture and imprison my soul (doubly so for the cell-phone!!).

Having said all that let me recount an event that took place a few weeks ago:

I was driving home from work and pulled up to a stoplight next to a huge gas guzzling smog producing ginourmous tire animal smashing SUV. As I usually do I looked over to smile or wave (I’m crazy like that) and noticed four people in the car talking on…cell-phones. There were two adults and 2 junior high aged kids in the SUV and all four of them were having conversations totally independent of each other on their cell-phones!! I was completely dumbfounded, so I decided to follow them. (Oh, by the way did I tell you that I have a tendency to stalk?) Anyway, I followed them down the street and at every stoplight they were still talking on their phones. They stopped at the local coffee shop and all of them got out and continued to talk on their phones only pausing long enough to order their drinks…they still did not talk to each other. Then they left the coffee house and drove to the local Junior High School to drop off the kids, still not one word was shared between them. What’s more, the parents didn’t even take the time to drop their phones for a few seconds to say good-bye to the kids, and the versa is true as well.

I went home sad…I went home wishing I had someone to talk to. My wife had gone to work, and I was alone in the house with my dog Zoë. Sure she is good at a little face licking, but it’s not the same thing as having someone to talk to. I could have picked up my cell phone and called someone, but then I felt like I would have been in the backseat of the SUV with the kids being ignored, and ignoring the parents.

Now I could try to wow you by talking about how I knew the family in the car and that they went to my Church or some crap like that, but that isn’t the case. I didn’t know them and I still don’t. Or, I could try to stretch this into some deep spiritually significant commentary, but I won’t (at least not too much). But let me make three points:

1. Seeing this event shamed me because for that whole day, I myself spent more time on my cell-phone talking with people whom I have an association with at best, and talked to my very own wife very little. I threw more words away that day than I care to remember.
2. I believe that God was serious; that He meant it in the deepest sense, when in Genesis 2 He said, “It is not good for man to be alone”. I don’t think he was joking, I don’t think he was playing around. And I believe that he knew that the very first thing that was going to go out the window when sin entered the garden was relationship, and thus community.
3. I also believe the natives are right about the camera, and all other “modern” technology: You know that new iphone you are salivating over? You think that the cost of owning it is over when you hand over that couple hundred dollars, but the truth is that you are going to be paying it off with little pieces of your soul for the rest of your life.

So here is my question: Who do you talk to?