No phone, no lights, no motor car...
Not a single luxury, like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be.
You may recognize the theme song... from Gilligan's Island. The show actually aired on CBS from September 26, 1964 to April 17, 1967 according to Wikipedia. I remember watching the show in the afternoons when in the 70's.
My two sisters and I would pretend to be the characters... my oldest sister got first choice, so of course, she was Ginger, the movie star. Second choice for the middle child gave me the title of Mary Ann, and that left my younger sister with the classy, "Lovey - Mrs. Howell". She was probably 4 or 5 at the time! :) We acted out scenes and could certainly belt out the theme song.
This week, however, my thoughts are focused on two words from the song... "no phone". Frank and I found ourselves in the car headed out for an evening of dinner and hopefully a movie. As we turned out of our neighborhood, I reached for my phone... and realized "in horror", I had left it at home. The discussion to turn around to get it was quickly steered toward the fact that, "surely... I could be out of touch, unreachable... for a few hours without the world coming to an end." So we continued...
Out of habit, even during dinner, I reached for my phone.
Out of habit, as we slid back into the car, I reached for my phone.
Out of habit, as the movie started, I reached for my phone.
Out of habit, as the movie ended, I reached for my phone.
Out of habit, as we rushed back to car, I reached for my phone.
Are you noticing the pattern?? I'd like to honestly tell you that I really only checked for my phone those five times... but that isn't true at all. I tried to find a statistic on it... the results vary from 80-150 times per day. Just taking a middle number of 120 - hoping we sleep/shower 8 hours or so, that means our phones are checked at least every 10 minutes.... every 10 minutes... that statistic doesn't show how many minutes are used WHEN we check that phone. Does that boggle your mind just a little?
You've been to dinner... let's be honest, we've been THAT family seated at a table with the majority of the members attached to the phone of choice.
Can I challenge you... challenge us. Choose a time of day... maybe a full day, that you take a break... not just adjusting your phone to vibrate or even silent/airplane mode. Really push the button, turn it off... for an hour... half a day... give it a try, and in its place, listen to some beautiful Christmas music, read a book to your kids, sit in silence, be still to ponder God's grace and mercy through Jesus, His son.
Mary took a moment in Luke 2 to simply, "treasure up all these things and ponder them in her heart."
No phones... no lights... no motor cars... Choose the day.... Choose the time...
Oh, by the way... my phone was in the bottom of my purse the whole evening... silenced...
:)
Thanks for sharing.
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