Morse Code in the Bathroom
I think most people would agree, that throughout life, we all can develop an attachment or two. Babies get attached to pacifiers and bottles. Toddlers get attached to their favorite stuffed animal, blanket or parent. Teenagers become attached to clothes, friends and drama. Adults get attached to money, cars . . . and the list goes on.
Although attachments often seem interchangeable throughout our lifetime and harmless enough, I would venture to guess that there is one attachment that closes the gap between all generations and that is a cell phone. Metaphorically that is, certainly not physically. Afterall, there isn’t a middle-aged person alive who can outrun a teenager. Of course, that would depend if said teenager is distracted by their phone. It would also depend if said teenager had accidently (or intentionally) run off with that middle-aged person’s phone. In that case, I would put my money on that middle-aged person in that foot race. Nothing like having your cell phone taken away to get motivated for a quick sprint. Never mind that your doctor may have been trying to get you to do that for years to keep that ticker working properly. Put a cell phone just out of reach of anyone in need of a good cardiac workout and you’d probably see a lot more people getting in shape. How many times have you misplaced your cell phone, only to go into sheer panic modein order to find it? You heart rate increases and you find yourself up on your feet, doing all sorts of cardiac moves to locate it. Lifting up couch cushions, bending over to look underneath the couch. You know I’m right . . .
So why are we so metaphorically attached to our phones? Although in the early days (known as the 70’s) we were actually attached to our phones. I remember those old wall phones with their coiled cord that would only allow you to stray so far from the phone’s base. We quite literally couldn’t go within five or six feet of our phone whenever we wanted to talk to someone that wasn’t standing in front of us. Yes, actually talk. There was no such thing as texting. People truly did have real life (in real time) verbal conversations. We weren’t waiting for three little dots to appear on our phone in order to know if someone might be responding to us. The movement of their lips clued us in on that. Now, without even having a cord dangling from the handset of our phones, we are still attached to them. Invisibly perhaps, but nonetheless, attached.
I have sat at ball games, watching people holding their phones, some videotaping, some playing games, some texting, scrolling through their e-mails, watching video clips, and so on and so forth, but what I don’t see is a lot of people paying attention to the event in front of them. It has always been an interesting phenomenon for me to see people posting about their life, instead of living it. I for one, prefer living it. Have we really run out of things to say or do we care more about what we might be missing than what we actually are missing and that’s life as it is unfolding in front of us.
Scripture tells us in (Matthew 24:42-44) Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Not to put a damper on your day, but it’s a little hard to be ready for the return of Christ when we are so self-absorbed in what is happening on our phone instead of what is actually happening in front of us. I’ve sat in restaurants and watched couples occupied on their phones, unmindful of the person sitting directly across the table from them. I’ve watched salesclerks finish their text before acknowledging that I am in front of them waiting to be checked out. I’ve seen toddlers with phones (I am hoping they are watching Sesame Street, if Sesame Street is still a thing). Before you start accusing me of being all judgmental here, I can admit (with shame I might add) that I am addicted to my phone,and unlike other addictions, such as alcohol and drugs, our phones aren’t likely to cost us our life or the lives of others when we partake much too often of that addiction. Or can it? There are those who drive distracted by their phones; people who walk mindlessly into traffic because they are so absorbed on their phone. I’ve seen those videos of people falling into mall water fountains because they are so distracted by that tiny little handheld object. Let’s face it, would we even know if Jesus walked right up to us? After all, we aren’t paying attention to the person sitting right across from us at a restaurant table. We are too absorbed with our phones to see the forest for the trees, so to speak, let alone the Son of God.
However, no matter how addicted to my phone I may seem, I can breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that my addiction isn’t as bad as others. I like to tell myself I can stop it at any time. After all, I don’t want to become so addicted that I find myself going past the point of no return, which I learned can actually happen. . .
While visiting a friend in the hospital, I stopped by the bathroom to do what one does in a hospital bathroom; any bathroom for that matter. Although after this particular visit to the laboratory, I realize I may be wrong on that.
Finding a stall and locking the door behind me, I started to do what it was that I came there to do. As I start the rundown of tending to nature, I hear a peck, peck, peck, followed by a few seconds of silence and then another rapid succession of peck, peck, pecks (hesitation) and then more peck, pecks. Not sure of what those pecking sounds meant, I envisioned a crazed woodpecker on the loose in the women’s bathroom. Forgetting about the whole reason I was in that bathroom stall, I intently listened as the silence again was replaced with a hurried pace of peck, pecks. Was someone sending out morse code in the bathroom? Was I hearing dashes and dots being signaled. Were those pecks spelling out someone’s need for toilet paper?
It had been a long stressful last few hours, (not sitting in the bathroom stall, but leading up to visiting my friend in the hospital), and so one can only guess what a tired and overconcerned mind can imagine. Once my business was taken care of, and I reached for the handle to flush, I realized where those peck, pecks were coming from and what they were. The woman in the stall next to me wasn’t sending out morse code, she was texting someone on her cell phone. Eww and eww again. Okay people, now there are some limits that we need to reign ourselves in from when it comes to cell phone use, and a bathroom stall, I profess, needs to be a no cell phone zone. Of course, for those of us who limit ourselves to just how far we are willing to go to stay attached to our cell phone, I must admit, I was amused by the whole thing.
Hearing my neighbor’s toilet flush, I found myself in laughter as I finished drying my hands, and hurrying out of the bathroom before she would find a crazed woman laughing in the bathroom for unknown reasons. And I was the one who didn’t want to seem crazy . . . I will admit, the curious side of me wanted to put a face to the woman whose need to text, superseded her need to have a sterile phone. However, the need to flee unseen, overtook my curiosity.
Hey, if you want to use your cell phone while using the bathroom, by all means, it’s your choice, but aren’t we taking this addiction a bit too far?
Life is happening all around us, and so maybe it’s time we cut that invisible cord to our cell phones and start making time for the people whose paths we cross. After all, we never know when Jesus might sit down right next to us. Perhaps not in a bathroom stall, but do we really want to be so busy on our cell phone that we fail to recognize His presence?
Matthew 25:44-45 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ Then He will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the last of these, you haven’t done it for me.”
In laymen’s terms, put your phone down and start interacting with other people. It will bless your day more than you could possibly realize, and who knows you might find some time to learn morse code. . .