My cell phone lay dormant, in the bottom of my purse,
turned off all week because of a busy schedule of back to back meetings.
When I had a slight emergency on the back country roads yesterday,
I reached for my lifeline.
Dead..... so dead that it would not even work on my emergency car charger.
It was 2 hours before the first car passed, they stopped of course,
(we do that here), and I was able to call roadside assistance,
who came and sent me on my way.
But sitting stranded for that while, gave me some much needed down time.
It also gave me alot of time to think about how dependant I'd become.
I got my first cell phone in '95, a gift from my husband.
Although I thanked him for his thoughtfulness,
I really wanted to ask him "What were you thinking???"
The size of a Cracker Jack box and twice as heavy as my change purse,
it embarrassed me.
No one I knew had a cell phone.
It seemed pretentious and absolutely unnecessary.
I would make quiet calls from bathroom stalls.
Twelve years ago, without a cell phone , I would have
walked the 5 km to the highway, stuck out my thumb,
and got a ride home.
Instead, I sat, helpless, waiting, for another cell phone to appear on the horizon.
A Psychological Evolution, folks,
from pretentious to essential in just over a decade.