Phones

[migrated from myspace blog]

First of all I want to say I'm amazed anyone is actually coming here to read these. Apparently there were 16 people on my blog page in one day.

I live in a house with a lot of phones. There is one connected to the wall, two cordless, and two cell phones. Apparently I'm the only person in the house who realizes that when a phone rings, it doesn't mean you have to answer it.

I won't name names, but lets just say that someone here today was complaining after a second phone call in a very short period of time because he was trying to get something else done at the time. I just thought to myself, "Then why are you answering it?"

And then, also today, the phone rang during dinner and a second unnamed person decided to answer it while putting off eating. Do you really think you're that important that the outside world can't do without you for 20 minutes?

All this got me thinking about the fact that most people don't stop to even think if they should or want to answer the phone. Many people screen their calls, but there isn't even caller ID in this household. Most people under 50 or so were raised in a house with a phone, and anyone else with a phone could get ahold of you at any time, if you were home. So intentionally or not, we've all been indoctrinated that when the phone rings, you automatically pick it up and answer it. Maybe people just hate the sound of the phone and want to stop it from ringing. But I encourage everyone (all 16) to stop and think, do you really want to answer that phone right now, or would you rather be doing something else? I support not answering the phone once in awhile, just to see what happens.