Don't you wish everything in life was as clear as black and white? It would be nice to have a clear answer to all of life's issues, but too many situations leave a lot of gray area to be interpreted. I'll even take the analogy a step further...with everything going on in our lives these days, I say we all live full-color lives. When we consider balancing God, family, career, social life, housework, etc, there are many things pulling us in many different directions. It makes it difficult to focus on one issue at a time, let alone the gray area within each individual issue.
Case in point: We posted the January update to the Emry Board, and in that post Whitney tried to deliver a big message to everyone. We anticipated no one would notice her message amongst all the color and distractions in the pictures. We've posted the exact same pictures below, and helped simplify her message by pulling out the color and focusing on the issue at hand...
Did you see the message this time? Go back and check the Emry Board again. You'll discover that the message was hidden there in the chaos of color the whole time!
Yes, its true...Whitney is going to be a big sister! We are so thankful God has blessed us with the gift of life once again. It looks like he's adding even more colors to our already-vibrant lives!
So I was listening the SVP & Russillo on ESPN radio this week and they were talking about the Ray Lewis scandal. If you're going to listen to sports talk radio, SVP & Russillo is the show to listen to. These guys aren't scripted and predictable like Mike & Mike, they don't try to grab ratings with outrageous opinions like Colin Cowherd. They are witty, down to earth, give honest opinions and give a very real and interesting perspective on the sports headlines each day.
But back to Ray Lewis..apparently he is being accused of using some type of deer-antler spray to help him recover from a torn triceps injury this year. Apparently deer-antler spray is on the banned substance list of the NFL.
Scott and Ryen were talking about how ridiculous this story sounds and posed the question, "If someone from 1950 got into a time machine and came to present day society, what would surprise them the most?"
Obviously they were going from the angle that this story sounds so off-the-wall it is almost unbelievable. They were also talking about it from the angle of what crazy things people are willing to do their bodies to get them to look a certain way or be able to perform at a certain level. They related it to other recent sports headline like the outrageous Manti Te'o story and Lance Armstrong's admission of doping.
One email they read from a listener struck a chord with me. I don't have the exact quote, but it went something like...
If someone from 1950 arrived in a time machine in 2013, they would be most surprised that everyone is walking around with a device in their pocket that gives them access to information about anything that anyone would ever want to know. The device itself wouldn't surprise the person, but the fact that our main uses of that device are to watch videos of cats falling off tables and to make fun of people in a public setting(twitter).
It dawned on me why mePhones bother me so much...there isn't anything else in the world that is a bigger waste of potential and resources.
The cold front that hit the tristate this week? That was hell freezing over...unfortunately, I got an iPhone this week(actually Maren and I both got iPhones this week, AHH!). I say unfortunately because ever since the iPhone came out I have despised them. Its not the iPhone itself that I dislike, its the fact that around the same time the iPhone was released, everyone's cell phone etiquette flew out window faster than iPhones flew off the shelves. Everyone got so wrapped up in what they could do on their "smart" phone that they forgot about what they could do without it. Most of the "wonderful things" our phones do for us are just self serving nonsense, so I've dubbed them mePhones.
I had planned on writing this post awhile ago, but never got around to it. I was originally going to post my top reasons why I'll never get an iphone. Since I'm now an iPhoner myself, I figured I better post it before I got fully adapted to my new lifestyle and became a complete hypocrite. The problem was every time I started typing any of my ideas, I'd go off on a 3 paragraph rant that sounded like I hate all people who answer or try to use their phone.
The truth is, I don't. So instead of attempting to list all of my pet peeves about the lack of cell phone etiquette and how people abuse them, I'm going to try to keep it positive. I'm skipping all the witty, sarcastic statements and funny quips that have been brewing in my mind for the past couple months. Instead, I'd rather focus on a way to get us thinking about the topic instead of making fun of it.
Cell phones can be a great tool to keep in touch with loved ones who live far away. They are also a safety device that can help us in an emergency situation too. But for the most part, they are just a huge distraction to our lives. That is where my beef begins...
Don't let your phone become this big of a distraction...
Does your dinner table ever look like this?
Have we ever looked right past the people who are present with us to check a text msg or email from someone because our phone buzzes or dings? How many times have we stopped a conversation or left the dinner table to answer our phone(especially when we don't even recognize the number!)? How many times do we stop in the middle of a conversation to look up an answer to a question instead of continuing to discuss the question at hand? How often do you and a loved one sit in the same room, and instead of talking together, we are buried in our phones or the TV or the computer? What about giving our children the phone to play a game or watch a movie so they are occupied while we do something else?
Spending some quality time with dad and mom!
Are our phones really helping us accomplish more? In reality, are we missing out on 'real' opportunities and 'real' experiences to chase something that could be better? If your loved one is in the room, please stop reading my useless thoughts and talk to them. Or invite them them to watch the video below with you. Take 10minutes...turn off your phone...
How much noise does your phone cause in your life? Besides the obvious rings, dings and buzzes, what other kind of noise does your phone create? Try turning it off for an hour, 4 hours, or a whole weekend! How would that change what you did? What would you do instead?
My fear is that Maren and I end up becoming all the things I was originally going to make fun of when I started writing this article. Hopefully we can find a way to shut out the noise! Just some food for thought...
