Imagine if you will a middle-aged male, one who has not been in any sort of shape for the better part of a decade, traipsing through life completely naked.
Not a pretty sight, is it?
Well, that's exactly how I felt for an entire week. Naked. Was it freeing? Somewhat, yes. But more so, it was unsettling. I felt exposed. Sort of like that dream where you show up to school wearing only underwear.
'Twas a Monday when one of my offspring (who shall remain nameless just in case she reads this some day) inadvertently left my phone outside. After awhile I noticed a quiet rain had begun to fall. Then as one is wont to do I began to wonder where my phone was.
Turns out it had crossed over to that big Apple store in the sky.
Stripped of my personal voice assistant, access to every song in the known universe, and the ability to play the wordle any time and any place, I was left to survive with virtually no connection to the outside world. I mean, I still had internet access on the computer. And access to my wife's phone, if needed. As if any of us can remember anyone's phone number at this point in human existence.
Driving to and from work? What if I was in an accident? Had car trouble? Got lost? Granted, the last one isn't likely, but at my age you can't completely rule it out.
I think I missed my music most of all. A couple of times I almost broke down when I started to say, "Siri, play..." before realizing she was no longer there.
And don't even get me started on using the bathroom. I'm just sitting there, like an idiot, twiddling my thumbs!
At long last, after $623 to pay off my old phone, my new little bundle of memes, songs, and vitriolic political social media posts arrived.
Slowly, things have gotten back to normal. I'm wordling, sharing hilarious memes, and most importantly of all, listening to any song I want to.
To think we used to have to buy individual albums, then flip the cassette over and guess how long you needed to fast forward the tape so that you could re-listen to a song all because your tape deck didn't have a rewind button.
To think people used to take long car trips with no cell phone. What happened when they had car trouble? It's impossible to know.
Most probably walked to a payphone or got help from a kind passerby. The rest? They were most likely kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. Or worse, eaten by wolves or bears. A lucky few simply starved to death.
Funny to think if I had a question about something, I would have to ask someone and just trust whatever they said. Or go look it up in my father's twenty-year-old set of encyclopedias. Thank Al Gore for the internet where anyone can post anything at all so you know you are getting the most complete and accurate information available.
So what was it like without a phone? Sure it was nice to spend more time with the kids and not have to ask my wife three times what she just said.
But would I want to go back to a time before phones?
Probably.
But only if you could guarantee I'd have a quality tape deck. With fast forward and rewind.
And the Bic pen with the blue cap and clear hexagonal barrel, so that I can spend ten minutes reeling the tape back in when it inevitably unwinds.