writings
Paul Martin Lester (E-mail and home page), University of Montana
I get my mail from the post office in Lolo. When I'm paying for postage, George is usually behind the counter. He's one of the most efficient and easygoing persons I've ever met. If you ever find yourself in Lolo, be sure and say hello to George for me. But one day he had a story to tell. There was a customer in line who was talking so loud on her cell phone that everyone else had to stop and wait before she was finished. Several days afterward, George was still steamed by the rudeness of the woman's actions.
It seems that some cell phone users think they have the right to talk as loud as they want under any circumstances. I was in a movie theater and a phone rang and the person in front of me chatted about the movie so far. I've heard folks talking on these phones when I've been hiking in the woods. When they first came out, they used to be cool and symbol of affluence. Well, the luster is off the technology when even kids can afford to have a phone with them at all times.
And what is up with the cheesy music that substitutes for a telephone ring? Classical music was never meant to be played on a speaker the size of a pistachio. In fact, there are websites, mostly maintained by pop music groups in which you can download a few bars of a hit song to use as your cell phone ring. And what about these oh so very important businesspeople at airports who use a headset phone. Don't they know they look like idiots talking to themselves as they sit at a gate waiting for their plane? Enough.
But probably the worst place to use a phone is while driving a car. A recent study has shown that accidents occur while talking on a phone not because of the phone itself but because the driver is distracted by the conversation. It doesn't matter if you're holding the phone with one hand or using a hands-free model or headset. Our brains simply do not function well when trying to perform two completely different activities.
But my cell phone beef this evening is actually only one component of a larger societal complaint. And that is how technology is intruding upon areas where our minds alone used to be enough. It's getting harder and harder to find a quiet place to go and just be alone with our own thoughts. I'm concerned that maybe society is getting to a point with all these distractions that we don't even WANT to be alone with ourselves. This issue might have started with President Roosevelt's Fireside Chats and then progressed to television and TV dinners. Families started to sit around the radio or TV and listen and watch instead of talking to each other around a dinner table. We can't drive and simply enjoy the sound of the wind and the road. The radio must be playing. And yes, I am aware of the irony of that last sentence.
Fortunately, there are those who understand the need for quiet solitude away from the sounds of the city and media-driven technological distractions. The Quaker meeting house in Missoula for example has a tradition during their Sunday service of spending an hour in quiet meditation. The spell of this quiet time is only broken if someone is moved to speak. They call it "Speaking from the Silence" and the meditative meandering of your mind during this quiet time can lead to powerful insights and a calmness of spirit. But then, of course, the hour is over and the media machine starts up all over again. Noise rules.
But let's at least symbolically protest all of the aural and visual interruptions. I've been told that you just can't do this on the radio, but I'm going to do it anyway. For the next 30 seconds, whether you're in your car or at home, let's sit in quiet meditation together. Enjoy the simplicity. Listen to your mind. And if you are moved to speak, speak from the silence.
[30 seconds]
This is Paul Martin Lester of the Practical Ethics Center at the University of Montana.
writings