A part of me has died: I got a new phone

Hello Everyone,

I originally sent out this email on December 11, 2014

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If there are two things that I hate, it's overwrought moaning about some insignificant aspect of a person's life as if it was representative of some deeper truth, and replacing items I've had for a long time, because it feels like I am losing a part of my soul.

As mentioned in a previous email, my trusty, iconoclastic, makes-me-unique cell phone was slowing leaving the earthly plane. There are a few pictures and some contact information I still need to transfer from it before I bid that sweet Prince goodnight, but it has been resting comfortably on my desk since Monday. Awkwardly filling the hole in my life left by that plucky little phone, like something out of a feel-good movie, is a new, rambunctious contraption that I may be too old and curmudgeonly to operate. That, or it will teach me some heart-warming lessons about life and open me up to new experiences. I'm going with the former. True to form, there have been some zany misunderstandings that have led to hilarious outcomes. Like not knowing that my ringer was off and missing some important calls. Or accidentally signing up for a social media platform and thereby violating a core principle of the League of Grumpy Old Men. Of which I am a member. The phone itself, like all such smart phones, is a marvel of technology. What I found interesting though, and no less a marvel of human ingenuity, is the means by which I purchased it. I was able to walk out of the store with a brand-new phone without putting any currency on the table. That is a remarkable achievement. I promise to pay a certain amount for a certain length of time for the services to run the phone, and they give me the object itself for free. When we talk about the technological miracles that are these phones, we often mention the various innovations that have resulted in so many capabilities crammed into such a tiny device. But think of the innovations that allowed me to purchase it in this way. Few of them are really technological in the general sense, but they are impressive nonetheless. Specifically, I receive money that I never see from my employer, which goes from my bank, by means I don't understand, to the telecom company that didn't build either the phone itself or the software that runs it. These twin columns of innovation, one technological and the other social, result in an inexpensive device that allows me to take pictures of my cat wearing festive hats and share it with the world. Truly, we are a noble species. wes

#Attemptathumour #Philosophy