I’ll be the first to admit that I do love my smartphone. The primary need for me to own/use one is for work. I need to be connected at all times of the day and just about anything I can do on my laptop, I can also do from my Samsung Android smartphone. But there are plenty of times that I wish the darn things hadn’t been invented. I also enjoy staying in touch with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.
As my wife and I were exiting the Eurostar Lounge at the Brussels train station, we entered a large waiting area which was slowly moving towards the platform for our Eurostar train. There were several hundred people in a small space and things were moving rather slow. I wondered what could be the cause of this? Could it be there’s another security checkpoint? Ticket verification checkpoint? Then I looked around and I saw it. Literally everyone was in this zombie like mode of trying to read something, watch something or type something onto their phones. The line was literally going no where. More about this later…
The Finer Things
As a pipe smoker, I enjoy slowing the world down to a snails pace. If I happen to be reading, working a word search puzzle or just watching people…I use the art of pipe smoking to calm myself and to calm the world around me. When I typically sit down to smoke my pipe, I’m not bothered by what time it is and I almost never ever have any place to be anytime soon. In other words, if my pipe smoking session takes 30 minutes or turns into one hour or more, it’s 100% fine. As my wife is a cigarette smoker, it’s taken her some time to get used to this concept.
A Time and Place
There’s a time and place to slow things down and likewise a time and place to be as efficient as possible. The somewhat ironic thing about the behavior I witnessed in the Brussels train station does baffle me. After all, at no time was anyone asked to switch off their phones. There’s no safety demonstration and passengers are not restricted from using their phones at any point of the trip. Phones (including data/text) ever worked under the English Channel.
Unfortunately, I witness this same behavior at my office, at the grocery store…just about everywhere. The very devices which keep us connected and in some ways make our lives easier….are also distracting us and causing delays where they certainly don’t need to be.
Solution?
Unfortunately I don’t have all the answers and I don’t see this getting better anytime soon. I do my part by keeping my cell phone in my pocket when I’m in a busy environment. What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment below or Tweet me and let me know.
Until next time…
Happy Piping!
Jerry
