Blues by twos
Posted: April 19, 2011 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman 4 CommentsI love these photos…
One is Lama Gyen Yeshe with two Gompa dogs. The other is a book cover. There are reasons I like each of these. Composition, particularly with the women at the counter. Texture, the peeling paint. The untold, yet richly vibrant story each beckons the viewer to discover. The foreignness of each, a far away country. Most of all I love the blues, from royal blue to blue-green to turquoise green.
Listening to the Wall Street Journal This Morning on my way to work last week one of the stories was about a cool app. I’m not an app person. My cell phone is old school and wouldn’t recognize an app if it ran into one. And that’s mostly fine with me. I hate phones. I don’t much like talking on phones. I prefer the written word (and that doesn’t mean text messaging). With this app, when you see a color you love – whether it be on a shirt or a wall – you take a photo of that color. With your smart phone of course. (Don’t tell my trust-worthy old-school phone it’s not smart!) The app then uses that photo to determine the color and connect you with paint companies that can stir up a sample and send it to you. How fun is that?!
Did I mention I hate phones? On the very same day I learned about this awesome app, my son brought Buckley up for grooming. I look forward to this because we usually go to lunch afterward. And it’s usually just the two of us. I enjoy this special time. Our conversations are different when it’s just the two of us. Often I’m reminded of the many years we spent together driving back and forth from swim practice, a 20-minute drive one-way. Like I said, I enjoy this special time with Nate.
He has a smart phone. And he text messages. And he takes phone calls. He is usually polite about doing this when we’re together. While he did apologize, his interaction with that phone interrupted lunch and conversation. I finally asked him if he could post Out To Lunch on the damn thing!
I have watched people exiting the movie theater or a ball game, looking like extras from Night Of The Living Dead. Crowds glued to their phone screen, walking unaware of their surroundings, disconnected with the people they’re with, apparently unable to embrace the moment that envelops them. Is there anything that important? It seems me – possibly an old fuddy-duddy – but, it seems to me like the ability to be instantly connected is robbing people of connection with the here and now. It’s an interesting dichotomy from a sociological point of view.
One day, as technology continues to catapult us forward, I will forced to get a smart phone. I may even take a photo of something simply because I love the color. However, I will be Out To Lunch when I’m with people, the real people, in my life. And next time I might pull the trump card with my kid and take his phone away when we’re having lunch. Can one do that if the son is married, 26 years old, head coach and director of Colorado School of Mines Aquatics? 🙂
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 
Can I take the phone away from my husband? Tell his employees he has the day off and will respond to them on Monday. Just because you can “connect” with someone doesn’t make it right. I want my day off to mean exactly that-no work related content of any kind!!! Turn the phone OFF, it is an option.
Hello Debby,I enjoyed your comment about the phones. My daughter Rochelle came to see me and we went for a drive. She was texting to her husband and using the phone. I wan’t annoyed, was even curious to see that you have to hit each lletter to write a message. Not for me. (smile) Next time I will tell her to text ” out to lunch” smile. I still have my old cell phone which is large and I can see the numbers.
Alma
About two months ago, while snow plowing (must have been one of two snows this winter season – 😦 – we need moisture badly) Rick’s cell phone, a flip phone, slide out of the truck. He ran over it. Destroyed! In our graveyard of old electronic equipment he found an old Nokia phone – pre flip phones. Hadn’t been used in 11 years according to his calculations. Charged it up, pulled out its antenna and put it to work. His own affirmation was still there. Rick Sucks. My husband never did affirmations the Stuart Smally way. After that phone slide out of the truck and he ran over it, I asked him if I should buy one of those glasses holders on a necklace for his phone. He bought a smart phone. I haven’t picked it up except to take the above photo with the Out To Lunch sign on it. It does have the pull-out keyboard, which looks handy. He held out a long time before getting a smart phone. Now he’s calling me ‘cheap’ because I haven’t bought one. Ah! I’m thinkin’ he’ll look really ‘smart’ with his phone hung around his neck.
I turn my old school phone off all the time. I refuse to have lunch with friends who refuse to turn their phones off during lunch. I haven’t gotten a smart phone either. I don’t plan to.
What would all these socially disconnected people do if humanity ever lost our ability to connect?