Lessons from the many past lives of phones
As we move into the last weeks of the year, I’ve been thinking about how the old gives way to the new. Voices that emerge. Those that recede. How we change the way we do things. The list of what, when, where and so forth of what changes for how we do things is endless.
Some of the threads in social media that always garner a smile include watching today's generation try to figure out how to operate an old rotary phone. Just how does it work?
My phone memories go back well beyond that desk phone though. I remember when our family got our first telephone when I was just a young girl. It was a big bulky black contraption that hung on the wall. We shared our “number” with others because the “party line” was less expensive. It was a wonder to me how you could talk to someone that wasn’t in the room. Science? Or magic?
Years later as a teen, I remember my first “princess” phone – my very own extension phone for our now private line in my bedroom. No more stretching out the cord to find somewhere quiet to have a conversation. Simply shut the door.
The technology wasn’t a wonder anymore, but the new privacy was splendid!
Next came the mobile generation of these wondrous devices. My first mobile phone was nearly as big as our first wall phone, but you carried it around in a bag. The battery was huge. I still remember lugging it into restaurants when on sales calls. Clumsy yes – but so much better than having to make sure I had the requisite dimes or quarters and could find a safe place with a pay phone to check in.
Now, of course, we carry the world and everything in it in the palm of our hand. We can even charge the battery without having to plug it into any power source. It can recharge itself without any cords.
All these wonders and yet none have brought the same feeling of that very first moment, the first time I heard a voice on the telephone hanging on our kitchen wall. We're no longer amazed.
A lesson from these phones is that as new things usher in, the old things often, even should retreat. Once they are no longer useful, it’s time to let them go.
Have you ever wondered just why we save so much of what isn't useful anymore? Every time I tackle de-cluttering at home it becomes clear that I need to stay more focused on what needs to retreat!
Out with the old, in with the new. Maybe that’s our first list of the season! What can we let go of? Whether it’s an old hurt, a habit that no longer serves us, clothes that don’t fit, an out-of-date phone or anything that can serve others more than it’s serving us, let’s use this time to let them go.
It's important to live in the present, in the moment. And it’s important to make room for the future. Let’s all resolve to work on that.
