Telephone

(A special post for my friends over at
SundayScribblings )

This was a significant week - it was the first week of my retirement....well, at least my first retirement. I figure if share can reserve the right to enjoy multiple retirement tours, I deserve the same thing.

Plus, I'm not even 50 yet - there's a lot for me to do out there in this world.....and a lot of people that would really appreciate the unique talents that I bring to them. I may not be able to avoid working again...even if I want to. It has only been a week and people are crying for me to come back into the industry working for my competitors.

I had an interesting thing happen this week - involving the telephone. Over the 20+ years of being a hard charging business person, my golf game fell into extreme disrepair. I used to play competitively and had acquired a degree of talent. Over the last few years, it would have been hard to know that unless I told you.

One of the things I am going to work on - in my retirement is to see how quickly I can get my game back to the level it once was. I am a lot older so that is a negative....BUT the technology of today has me hitting the ball a lot farther than I used to.

I played a round during the week this week - and I had an epiphany. Even though I had a lot of Paid Time Off while working, I rarely played during the week. When I did, I would put my cell phone on "stun" mode. I would check during the round to see who was calling and try to ascertain whether they needed a call right back. For the first time in forever, I played the other day and didn't look at my phone at all.

I also didn't finish the round - and rush to see the calls that I had missed and all of the e-mails that I was now behind on because I was "playing hookey."

It was an EXTREMELY liberating feeling

My first cell phone - was a transportable model. If you remember, these were about the size of a phonebook. They had a full size handpiece. I remember taking that to the golf course and throwing it into the cart. I got such a ration of crap that day, "leave the office at the office," or, "tell the commanding officer we need more ammunition out here on the front line, sergeant."

As technology made the portable phone smaller, almost all of the people that I have played golf with in past year's - operate in a similar fashion to how I did. They are constantly checking for messages. Sometimes they take a call and delay the rest of us. Perhaps the cell phone has allowed them to get out on the golf course more
than they would have in the past.....

....but are they really THERE - on the golf course fully enjoying what the setting and the game can provide? Even if they are on the weekend taking personal calls, are they present?

Which takes me a step deeper - where else do we take our cell phones and iPods and Blackberry's? Do they allow us to be more mobile?....or do they dilute the experiences that we can have "in the now" that take a little bit of more than casual attention to notice. Does the technology create a degree of mindlessness?

And, because I am a thinker - I have to go to the next step. Take away the cell phone, the iPOD, the Blackberry. Would it make any difference? Would the void be filled with boredom or wonder for you?