Cell Phone Caper

The Great Cell Phone Caper 



What a pain in the you know what!  And you have probably done it too—lost the cell phone? Only I lost it during a very long hike.  For some people, this is a tragedy.  They have their lives stored on their phones—including their favorite pictures.  For me, I just wanted a phone to make phone calls—period.  Nothing more.  Even so, before cutting off the phone, I did my due-diligence.  That’s right…checked every chair I sat in, the parking lots I got out in, dialed the phone and listened around the house—you know the drill.  And then this afternoon, my son called the number trying to get me—not knowing that I had lost the phone!  A man answered it. He had just found it in a field! Crisis over…. I will get him a gift certificate as I retrieve it tomorrow.

Here's the sorry part.  Even without losing it, how much do I depend on it?  I sometimes wonder if my electronic devices lead me around!  I certainly go to meetings and parties and see the endless line of people stuck to their devices.  What's the difference between that and the person with the portable oxygen tank? 

I might as well be a hamster in a cage.  The wheel defines the hamster's motion--what he is doing.  Now what is the difference between the hamster trying to get around the wheel and my being led by that phone all day?  

 If not the hamster--then how about that pathetic scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?  The little girl is beyond a spoiled brat--she's totally possessed by the need to possess. 


Veruca Salt: I wanted to be the first to find a Golden Ticket, Daddy!
Mr. Salt: I know, angel. We're doing the best we can. I've got every girl in the place to start hunting for you.
Veruca Salt: All right, where is it? Why haven't they found it?
Mr. Salt: Veruca, sweetheart, I'm not a magician! Give me time!
Veruca Salt: I want it now! What's the matter with those twerps down there?
Mr. Salt: For five days now, the entire flipping factory's been on the job. They haven't shelled a peanut in there since Monday. They've been shelling flaming chocolate bars from dawn till dusk!
Veruca Salt: Make them work nights!

  Postlude

 There is a Yiddish saying about "beware your possessions that posses you!"   Of course, I needed to look for it.  But really, when I look back at the frustration over a thing as I will go to a funeral tomorrow. "What is that we will give in exchange for our lives," asks the Psalms.  There is a whole lot that our lives could stand to lose.