I never started counting - but I guess it would be pointless to start now. How could the flash of a little, red LED light symbolize so much? My eyes glance over to that un-illuminated black bulb cover; so dark that it could easily blend in with the sheen of the coal-like cover surrounding it. But having looked at it so many times, my eyes are drawn to it like magnets. A few seconds go by... and the light sleeps on.
Have you ever really thought about how sick your attachment to your cellphone is? I mean, honestly - how have we become so subjugated to an inanimate object no bigger than the palm of our hand? Who maintains no loyalty to us other than storing phone numbers and finishing our words for us while we text. What's even worse is the animosity that we feel towards those that haven't succomb to the cellular leash; those from whom we hear phrases like, "oh, I left my phone at home" or "sorry, I never check my messages". It's like saying something like - "oh, I just don't really eat food" or "sorry, I always forget to sleep". At least that's what it feels like to us minions of the cell phone.
The next time you're walking down the street, waiting in a mall or in a movie theatre take a look around you. Cell phones have become the proverbial security blankets of society. The vulnerability of being in public alone has warranted the creation of an unwritten set of rules which forbid intrusion of one 'loner' into another loner's space. You may not realize this, but those we categorize as being "normal" maintain a healthy shame of public solitude. The "non-normals" are the ones who dare to defy this solitude by having the audacity to engage strangers in conversation. But no matter what stigmas we imagine upon ourselves or, heaven forbid, others assign to us a cell phone seems to reciprocate "I could care less".
So here I am at work... waiting for that red light to flash... desparate for that light to flash... if only so I can 'care less'.