Hello

Teens cannot fathom this, but conversations without a phone used to exist. Smoke signals, jungle drums, snail mail with a $.03 stamp for years and electronic Morse code for sophisticated situations. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was given a patent for the telephone. As usual, my childhood memories of the black stationary version are of a different time. We were never on a party line, but an uncle was. Answer only if his special two rings, unless one was nosy and listened in to someone else’s conversation. Our phone was a step up and not attached to the wall. It had a receiver and a transmitter and sat in an alcove between the living room and the front bedroom. Run when it rings was the sequence of answering. Because Hammond had a training center, we had an operator as a helper to reach numbers like 398 or 713. If you were caught out in the world, public telephones were available in the ubiquitous red booths for a nickel. The final black box step to making contact was the answering machine. What more could we ask for?

It turned out quite a lot. Cell phones carried into the world by you seem to have been upgraded almost momentarily from being just a mobile phone to a mobile computer with as many bells and whistles as you want to pay to have available. Hold that thought and list the helpful advantages that matter to you and let me offer my gripe about privacy invaded. If an illegal option exists someone will find it from pickpocketing to scams. My first be careful education was not to answer offers that sounded good on the surface but could clean out my bank account. As of today, I am currently consumed with the sequence of blocking a throw the net wide call to me and unknown others asking for money for an election in Michigan, or telling a tale of woe about unthoughtful treatment to the sender, or supposedly making certain I know of evil in the world.

So here an old lady stands in the storm of life. Over my voting life I have been both a registered Democrat and a Republican. Switches were not made in anger. I have faced a variety of race and behavior from children in a classroom and managed not to send messages of hate. I have expressed the opposing opinion in some situations, hopefully in a manner that offered an option leading to a solution. The first tech action of the morning is to check this day to see if it will be lived without a world war. AND whatever mistakes I’ve made, I’ve not invaded your privacy with a text that is more abusive than banned books. Leave your phone on and use it for that communication humans need to share what connects and upholds in a positive way. I plan to do this with the time given when I don’t have to block the interruption of invasive texts.

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. 1 Timothy 2: 1-2