In between rounds at the bi-weekly trivia game at Jr’s, one of my dearest friends, Jim, announced that he needed some new material from ITunes to include in his workout mix. Rising to the occasion, I grabbed a piece of paper and informed him that I knew the perfect song for his repertoire. Trying to avoid the spills of lady drinks (aka Rose Kennedys) on the bar, I wrote 5 words on the slip of paper: Call on Me – Eric Prydz. Then, we went back to the game and managed to place third after an abysmal start. Being a school night and all, we called it a night at the conclusion of the game.
The following morning, while having my daily iced coffee, I received the following email (expletives removed) from Jim via Facebook, “So I look in my shirt pocket this morning, and I’m like Omigod, some guy named Eric Prydz said ‘call on me’ but didn’t give me his number. Then I googled it. D’OH!” Nearly spitting out my iced coffee, I doubled over with laughter as it was perhaps the funniest thing I had heard in weeks, especially given the racy video that accompanies the song on You Tube.
But it made me think. No one actually gives out their phone number anymore. In fact, no one ever calls anyone anymore. Tweets, texts, emails – you name it – short quips and status updates have replaced meaningful conversations either face to face or over the phone, and I am as guilty as the next person. In fact, I would venture to say I have a downright phobia of talking on the phone and have even removed my land line here in DC although I keep the land line in Portland just to remember the good ‘ol days.
Don’t get me wrong; I have a love affair with Facebook, and it’s allowed me to catch up with some old friends which would have otherwise been impossible in the midst of our busy lives. But have I really started using the “check-in” application on Facebook? Yup – guilty as charged. In fact, I get a special thrill about checking in at certain places like the gym and leaving out the frequency of other check-ins like Jr’s thereby confusing people that I lead a super human life committed to healthy living. Once an intern asked another staffer of mine who Peter’s friend Jr was because she had heard me speak of him often? The staffer laughed and replied, “Oh that’s just a bar he likes to go.”
But in between all the electronic check-ins this morrning, I decided to nervously pick up the phone and actually check in with an old friend and colleague whom I haven’t spoken to in over a year. The conversation actually lasted more than 2 minutes, and we employed the full use of complex sentences complete with proper subject and verb agreement. In those ten minutes, I learned a lot and even laughed a little. And amazingly, like riding a bicycle for the first time in years, I remembered how to do it: communicating in real life and not over an electronic device that relies on satellite signals.
Most importantly, we got to share updates on our dogs that we got together in a parking lot in Fryeburg, Maine 13 years ago this May. They both have gray hair now, they both move a little slower, they both have had unsightly lumps and bumps that are commonplace for dogs, and they both are a little hard of hearing. But I learned that my friend’s dog has cancer, and it caused me to think back on all the joy both of our dogs have brought us. Our two dogs even flew together on a small plane out to the island of North Haven because we had missed the ferry for a staff retreat. We thought about putting scarfs over their heads and sunglasses on as they deplaned just to invoke a little Jackie O drama, but we didn’t.
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| My Older Dog Alex |
You never know how long you will have with a beloved pet, but you come to appreciate each moment a little bit more the older they get. And it’s exactly for learning this kind of information that we should put the blackberry down and pick up the phone once and a while. We might just have a meaningful human interaction that is actually worthy of a status update or check-in.
