Monday, November 11, 2013

One Ringy-Dingy

If you're a millennial you might not have a clue what that title even means.

Sometimes when people find out I don't 'work' and they ask what I do, I'm half tempted to say I talk on the phone. I'm not kidding when I say it feels like I spend a fair chunk of my week talking on the phone. In the year 2013 it's often lamented we don't talk anymore, but people are still calling me.  Lots of people in fact. Mostly family, but friends too. There are times when a text just doesn't cut it. When all the people you love are spread far and wide across the globe or right next door, you sometimes need a real live voice to set the world back on its axis.

Such has been my day thus far. I was still in my workout clothes this morning when my mom phoned. We talk pretty much every Monday morning and I look forward to that. Plus her email is often 'broken' so the phone is our go-to method of communicating.

I postponed my shower because by the time we hung up it was going on 11 and I hadn't had breakfast.  I pour  my granola and stir in my yogurt and there's the phone again, this time an old friend is on the other end of the line. She's had a laundry list of hard stuff going on recently, and wanted to catch up.  Electronic communication isn't enough when life sits heavy on your heart. You need to hear that person on the other end of the line nodding their head and sighing right along with you.

We talked for a while, and I finally ate breakfast and was heading for a shower when Daughter1 called. She phones me on her lunch break many days and it's the surest way I know to brighten my day. We had a lovely talk about all manner of things including Christmas, boyfriends who live many states away, clothes, movies, and Southern manners. The deep and the not so deep.  She was having lunch and I was still in my work out clothes finishing breakfast at noon.

While Daughter1 and I were chatting hubs phoned. We text several times a day most days, but he's out of town and under the weather so he wanted the feel of home that comes with words said out loud.

Essentially I've spent my Monday morning on the phone. I know there are people who would say that's a waste of three hours, but I think the world needs middle aged moms with time in their day to talk and listen. To be the real live person on the other end of the line. Despite our love affair with technology we still long to hear a voice. To share our day in more than 140 characters and abbreviated syllables. To know that when we reach out someone will pick up.

When did life become an emergency?

I remember as a young girl talking on the phone for hours. Taking the phone from the wall in the kitchen, and moving on into the dining room where it was quiet. I'd walk as far as the cord would stretch, and then I'd sit on the floor and talk to my friend. As we'd talk I'd twirl the twisty chord between my fingers and contemplate my place in the ever evolving world of teenagedom.

These days people are always on the phone, literally everywhere you look including but not limited to the restroom stall beside you. We text, check email, update calendars, play games, ask where are you and have you even left yet?, snap pictures of our dinner entrees and ourselvsies, check in, update statuses, and probably a hundred other things I'm unaware my phone can even do, but good old fashioned conversation?  Not so much.

In a world where time is ticking loudly, ferociously, and without mercy, there is something about a phone conversation that says I've got time for you. Thanks Mr. Bell!

13 comments:

  1. That is the greatest question I've heard in a long time. When did life become an emergency? THought provoking! I spent the last 3 hours at my kitchen table with a knit pal in person, talking and knitting. Therapy indeed

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  2. I totally agree! I love thinking back to when the Hubby and I were dating and spending so much time on the phone. Sometimes saying nothing at all. Aww, those were the days. :)
    I can spend a good chunk of the day on the phone just chatting. Never do I think, it was wasted time.

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  3. You are blessed indeed. Daughers, friends, husband, mother. Blessed.
    (I sure miss those phone calls with my mom.)

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  4. I love talking on the phone - especially when there is laundry to fold or dishes to be done. Makes the time fly!

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  5. Thank you for the encouragement. It's easy to feel midlife doesn't matter a lot, but the truth is we are a vital middle part of the sandwich between aging parents nearing the end of their lives, and twenty-somethings in the prime of their lives. In addition to 'when did life become an emergency?" I ask, "When did time for talking become a luxury that's often looked down upon by those who live life in the fast lane?"

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  6. Yes! I find that I appreciate talking on the phone when it is ALL I can do. No multi-tasking, I like feeling like the person is really listening to me. I usually sit and have a beverage and look out of a window while I'm talking, I like that. Thank you for the reminder to take the time.

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  7. A blessed day for you! I'm one of those people who really hates talking on the phone, though. Say what needs to be said, and say good-bye. Terrible. I check caller ID and sometimes don't answer if it is someone who will talk my ear off. Terrible again. I just hate being on the phone. Conversation in person - fine. Come see me!! :)

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  8. I like that you talk on the phone. I certainly don't talk like I use to but I talk with my dad everyday. I seldom talk on my cell phone, I like a land line but I have had days like yours today where it seems like all I did was talk on the phone. I really wish people would get off their cell phones. I use it more when I travel than I do during any given week.

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  9. It is not wasted time!!! I do not have a landline *unlimited talk on the cell* I love talking to a live person vs texting it is so calming. I talk to my mom several times a day, I call her when i get home from visiting her and dad 15 mins lol.....then she calls me before she goes to bed. Some of my family are still old fashioned and do not have computers or fancy dancy cell phones. I hate people who YACK on the phone while on the toilet HOW RUDE. thanks for this JOYCE!!!

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  10. Is this the party to whom I am speaking? Loved her! I agree with your thoughts. All those relationships require cultivating, and that takes time. Time well spent!

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  11. I do my share of unnecessary cell phone activity as do my daughters, but I love that we all take a few minutes each day for a quick "what's goin' on" call with one another.It doesn't take long but it means a lot. I think your morning was well spent.

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  12. I agree with you 100%. Most times people don't take the time, or have the time to talk. What did they ever do without the cell phone? Good post.

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  13. I remember the days of talking on the phone for hours and not wanting the conversation to end. And I remember how much it meant to have people call long distance after I had moved far from home and was so lonely. After working in the marketplace for 43 years though, I became the woman who just wanted to say what needed to be said and get on with it--or even wait to hear the voice mail message. I admire you for being the real live person on the other end of the line.

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