The trials and tribulations of the electronic age

I am like Pavlov's dog.  A little light flickers and I don't salivate, but my heart leaps.

That light is my phone, my connection to those I love best on a regular basis and it always flickers just before they appear. Like those movies where the music rises, birds sing and sunlight diffuses everything into a blur of bliss, my phone chirps or rings to tell me a loved one is near.  In thought if not actuality.

I am very attuned to this phone.  It can flicker across the room and I see it.  I don't always hear it, though.  It has different settings and seems to reset itself to silent or vibrate with regularity.  That is a source of frustration for me,but it is also a lesson.  If I throw it across the room, I don't just hurt its little feelings, I might potentially crush it and it would never talk to me again.  So I learn patience and restraint!

Years ago I lived with my parents and four siblings in a mad mad world of frenzied activity.  Then I had a spouse and three children.  The world was even more chaotic because I was in charge.  After that there was a period of time where I had a small dog who depended on me. 

Now I live with four mute leafy beings who tremble slightly whenever I start talking about eating more leafy green vegetables, and a small electronic pet who puts Furby to shame.  It may not be soft or cuddly, but it speaks to me in the voices of those I love and chirps sweetly when they text.

I think of generations of women who lived alone on the prairie in tiny houses, or apartments in big cities before the advent of such devices.  When their children flew the nest they were left talking to themselves during the long cold winter hours when they couldn't get out.

I am so much luckier.