Reverse The Trend

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

An age old question (which to be honest, not one I've ever felt intellectually strong enough to tackle, or even the need to ponder), but put more contemporarily:

Which came first, the cell phone or the rudeness?

Yesterday, I went to do my civic duty (which in the local election amounts to me spitting in the wind, the guy in charge will stay in charge til the day they bury him). While returning to my car and placing the Cheese Eater in her car seat a woman I know pulled up next to me. Not a twenty year old, a forty something woman with grown kids, someone I have known my whole life. She got out of her car, came around to say hi, and started asking me questions about who to vote for. As I was answering she got a phone call. Without so much as "excuse me," she picked up the phone, said hello, and started to walk away. She eventually turned and yelled "Bye," over her shoulder, but I was flabbergasted.

It's really not just the phone either, I was having a conversation with someone about something I will admit, not too exciting, and in the middle of talking about it (not opinion, facts about the new deposit rules on water bottles in ny)she effectively ended the conversation with "whatever." While I was speaking.

Here's a possible solution. Everyone reading his blog, take an opportunity when your phone rings in public, or you get a text, NOT TO ANSWER IT. Once a day. Just try. Don't be on the phone when you walk into a store. Don't be on the phone when at the check out counter, when having a conversation with someone don't whip out your phone to check your email or text messages. I can't say I've never done these things, but find a way, one day at a time, to limit the control the phone has on your attention.

I believe civility may return if we do.