What did we do before we had cell phones? Some of us important people, some of us who thought we were important people, policemen, volunteer firefighters, doctors and drug dealers had pagers. When someone needed to speak with you they would call your pager number. You would then receive either a numerical page or an audio message.
After we evaluated the importance of the message we would either find the nearest phone
(often a pay phone) or wait until we got back to the office to respond. For some reason we didn’t have to live our lives around answering our cell phones like we do now. We could go to church without having a cell phone attached to our waist. We could go the movies without having to answer some stupid call during a quiet scene. We could eat dinner with friends and family that we really love without being interrupted by a casual aquaintance.
I know that we can’t go back in time, but we can go forward with civility. Use courtesy when it comes your personal communicator (formerly called the cell-phone). Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have to drop everything you’re doing to answer every call. If it’s that important they’ll call back. If you do have an important call that you must take while you’re in a restaurant or a movie theatre go outside to engage in your conversation. No one else wants to hear it! When you go to church leave the phone in the car. That should be God’s time and his time alone! Otherwise you may have ‘splaining to do at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter tells you, “The Lord was trying to get to you, but you were busy on the phone while you were in his house.”
It’s ok to have a cell phone, wireless phone, personal communicator or whatever they call it next week. Just use common sense and good manners when you use it.
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