I take tackling the house cleaning duties not as a chore but an opportunity to put right all that has been torn apart during the week (or weeks depending on long it's been). For me, it also mean jammin' to some tunes as well via Apple TV and iTunes, and I'm sure my new neighbors are just loving this!
So on this particular Saturday, as the tunes are radiating throughout the house, Billy Joel's tune Vienna came on. Now I've listened to this playlist more than a dozen times, but as I listened more closely to the words, these rang out:
slow down you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook
and disappear for awhile
I remember what it means to take the phone off the hook (showing my age a bit here). No one can contact you, peace and quiet, you could truly disappear. Why can't we do that today? Well, let's think about it, what happened when you called someone who took their phone off the hook? You heard a busy signal. Assumption: the recipient of your call was on the phone, you figured they were home, but you can't reach them or leave them a message, you just have to keep trying. I can't do that with my cell phone.
Sure I can let it ring and go to voice mail. Assumption today: Your phone is somehow permanently attached to some part of your body 24/7 and the recipient is ignoring you. I can shut my phone off entirely, but then it goes directly to voice mail. Assumption: The recipient forgot to charge their phone so I'll just keep calling and leaving voice messages. So when I turn my phone back on, the disappearing act I tried to do has created a task of returning calls, answering message, and doing what I was trying to avoid by disappearing.
While I can't say I miss having a landline, I do miss the disappearing act that came along with it. I have sympathy for my own children that will never know what that's like.
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