And no one simply has a phone conversation any more. There’s always a secondary activity going on simultaneously. Actually, often the phone call is the secondary activity which takes place while the caller is watching TV on mute and reading the closed captions, loading or emptying the dishwasher, doing laundry, ironing, dusting, tossing a salad, stir frying veggies, straightening out a drawer … Wait. Did I just hear a toilet flush? You took me in there?! And now what’s with all that gasping and groaning? Do you have intestinal problems, or … please tell me you haven’t moved from the bathroom to the bedroom!
What did people do in the olden days (i.e., when I was young). We didn’t have iPhones, iPad-pads, or iTunes; so we concentrated on one task at a time. Well, actually, not always. I remember one friend in particular who used to keep a book propped up on the steering wheel so he could read while driving, and another one who would catch up with her mending and hemming while guiding her car down the highway with her elbows.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard from either of them in quite a while. I wonder why.
It suddenly occurs to me that I have no right criticizing others for multi-tasking as I sit writing this essay while watching The View, munching a sandwich, soaking my feet, mentally compiling a grocery shopping list, and listening to my favorite “oldies” radio station. (If Tony Bennett doesn’t stop wailing about leaving his heart in San Francisco, I may have to switch to listening to rap. That will be less annoying because I won’t be able to understand the words.)
But I digress. Where was I? I can’t seem to focus any more for some reason.
(Oh, shut up Tony! You made me make a typo — and I missed what Whoopie just said to Joy!)
©2012 Rose Mula for SeniorWomen.com
Illustrations from Wikipedia.
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