Who do you suppose was the first person to look at a telephone and desperately want to call someone — but know he can’t?
Before the telephone, two people were either in the same place or they weren’t. After the telephone came along, time on the phone — and later other forms of live conversations such as chat and FaceTime — became reasonable facsimiles of the real thing. Not as good as touching someone, of course, but far more satisfying than nothing.
As more and more people got telephones — and the sound quality got better over the years — there had to come a point at which someone looked at his or her phone for the first time and wanted to call someone that he or she couldn’t call. I wonder when that was.
I didn’t have periods such as this early in my life, but it’s become common now. I want to hear her voice. I want to hear her words. I want to listen to her thoughts and emotions. But I can’t.
If they steal from taxpayers long enough, shoplifting seems normal
Question the ‘experts’: They don’t know as much as they think
Shared misery: Nobody can have air conditioning unless everyone can
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
Society needs storytellers to help make sense of a changing world
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone