Frank J. Buchman

Cowboy • Horseman • Writer

‘Non-Essential Cells’ Bring Out The Bad Side

Do we really need telephones?

We couldn’t understand over 30 years ago when Uncle Elmer would not have a telephone connected. He retired from a city career, moved back to his rural hometown, lived in an upstairs apartment, helped Dad on the farm and did not have a phone.


Now, we can sympathize with his feelings. Raising four children, along with their acquaintances, and then grandchildren, he evidently no longer wanted the seemingly unending telephone rings and hours of jabber. Besides, Elmer contended, if somebody needed him, he was doing chores, and he most likely didn’t want to be found anyway.

Our livelihood depends on the telephone, and we talk on the phone many times every day. With the frequency of making and receiving calls, we too get so we despise the sound of the ring and really prefer not to talk. Others on the phone even make us jittery.

Now don’t get us wrong, we’re thankful Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and it is a wonderful communication device. To set at our desk and visit with somebody across the ocean is still incomprehensible. Then, mobile phones were invented.

They hadn’t been out long, when we got one for our wife. It was the cigar-box-kind that plugged into the dash power-hole of the pickup, so she could call for assistance when chores went haywire. We thought then we’d get one for ourselves, because we could make dozens, even hundreds, of account calls when driving. That idea never
materialized.

Now cell phones are the most prevalent mode of communication ever. Everybody has a cell phone, from pre-school age to very mature seniors. Everybody except us, that is. Mostly it is orneriness, but we get along fine without. Yet, all of our family has one, and we call them on their cells, without giving it a second thought.

With all one can credit to cell phones, they are the root of rudeness and hazard. Cells ring everywhere, from the office, to the store, to church, to horse show classes to funerals. People answer their cells, talk like in the private of home and raise their voice to overshadow all else. We’re embarrassed, yet the talkers have no clue how rude they are.

Personal random surveys have revealed that as many as one-fifth of auto drivers were talking on phones. We wave, and they never see us. They don’t likely see much else on the roadway, either. Oh, we’ll have a cell phone someday, without a doubt, but we’re holding out. We’ll continue to use phones in our offices, or maybe none.

In the meantime, hopefully those multitudes using cell phones, and insist they can’t live without them, can be more tactful and respectful. Sound advice comes in Colossians 4:6: “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

+++ALLELUIA+++

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