I love my Blackberry (Yes, I would have loved an iPhone, too, but you know…). For the first time I am totally connected to the world wherever I am. My two main email accounts come through this thing. I have Internet access. I can post to Facebook, Twitter, Ping.fm, and Plurk whenever I want. I can send txt messages, chat in Google Talk, and carry on conversations through Facebook’s Inbox app. I can even listen to my favorite custom radio stations at slacker.com. Yes, I love my Blackberry.
But…
Isn’t it amazing how there are always two sides to every story? Henri Nouwen put it this way: There is life and death in every decision. The key to a successful life is making decisions that bring more life than death into your experience. Those words have haunted me for years.
Sometimes we are cognizant of the decisions we make. We recognize the good and bad results that are possible. And we choose life-giving responses. Or not. It is still, after all, a life of free will.
But sometimes we are simply NOT aware. At those times we leave the results of decisions up to fate. It is like we’ve flipped a coin, but walked away before we know whether is heads or tails. When that happens, life ain’t fun.
What does this have to do with my Blackberry I hear you asking. Last night I went out for some alone time. My youngest daughter was cleaning the house and listening to music I didn’t think I could survive, so I went to Panera and worked / played on my laptop. Later, I changed locations and thought I set my Blackberry to vibrate so I could more easily tell if I was getting calls. Instead, the little trackball had a mind of its own and decided to play a mean trick on me. The phone went to silent. Total Connectness gone.
So my daughter tries to call me. No answer. She texts me. No answer. She calls her mother who calls me. No answer. She texts me. No answer. She tries me on Google Chat. No answer. All the while, I’m totally oblivious to the fact that the world is looking for me.
When I finally remembered to glance at my phone (3 hours later), I had missed 6 phone calls and as many texts, each one getting more and more frantic. When I called my daughter she was already in the car getting ready to scour the streets looking for the mangled wreckage of my car.
After calming down overnight, I realized that while I love my Blackberry, life was much simpler when no one had a cell phone. The expectation of instant, total connectivity has changed the way we live forever. I love my Blackberry.
But I’m not sure I will trust it anymore.