Beautiful day here in the oldest city, St Augustine… It’s Sunday morning, Memorial Day weekend..Went to the beach early for some time alone.
Soon after getting there, I realized I had left my cell phone at home.. ‘Oh no’, I thought, ‘how will they be able to contact me?’ The thought of not being in “contact” status, frightened me.. After all, if something happens to a family member, I want to know about it and be reachable.. Or if friends need me, well I want to be reached..
But, then again, is it really that important?
I realized that I’ve only had a cell phone for around 6 years.. What did I do before then? Well, sometimes we would leave a number were we could be reach by our significant other[s].. And if there was no phone number to leave, an approximate time of arrival was declared.. And I suppose that it is a good gesture to leave a number where we could be reached. Particularly by family.. But I went to the beach this morning.. No cell phone with me and no number to be reached at. How cool is that!
I walked for a long time. I did a little Qi Gong, a little Tai Ji.. Stretched for a while, got my feet wet. The ocean was just perfect.. I decided that at least once a week I was going to not be reachable.. I was going to disconnect, if you will.. What a liberating thought; a phone break. I think we should declare a day of the week as a “Cell Free” day.. That’s right, no cell phone for that one day, period.
I think we are, as a society, suffering from a new syndrome I will call, “Cellphonitis” (just coined a new term 
) or a phone inflammation.. I mean, think about it, young children on 2nd grade and up already have cell phones. There was a time, way back when, that only those with some dough had a ‘mobile phone’ and you could tell because that huge antena on the back window stuck out like a sore thumb! Ah, yes, I forgot about the beepers. Boy, they went out like the eight tracks.. It was cool to have a beeper back then.. I remember a girl describing me to her mother and convincing her how cool I was by informing her I had beeper.. Of course, her mother knowing I’m from Colombia, probably thought it was for dealing dope.. Oh well..
But not today. Anyone can have a cell phone… tiny little ones, I think they call it the razor. People are driving while on their cell phones.. Particularly around five pm.. One hand on the steering wheel, the other on the cell phone. In fact, some use the shoulder to hold the phone to the ear, one hand driving and the other lighting up!
[Warning! Soapbox mode on]
But here’s the one that really gets me. When my patients come to the sessions and leave their cell phones on! And actually answer it should it ring!. And, the ring! Folks have their cell phones programmed to play “heard it through the grapevine” or “hot stuff”!
But that’s ok. We’re holistic practitioners and we understand..(a bit of silence goes here)… NOT!
Imagine doing that to your GYN or the guy who checks your prostate! You are ready for the exam and there it goes, the cell rings with the theme of “leave it to Beaver”. ‘Excuse me’, you say, ‘please don’t insert anything in me while I answer this call’…
Of course not! You know in advance where you’re going and turn it off when you get there…
[/Soapbox mode off]
Well, I had a wonderful morning on the beach.. So much so that I decided to stay for at least one more hour.. But unfortunately I didn’t have my cell on me to let my wife know.
So I went home…
Posted by fbernall at 08:27 PM. Filed under: Ahi na' ma' •