Multitasking Technology

I was at yet another warehouse sale with my parents on Tuesday (Levi's this time). Same old, same old. As my dad was trying on a reasonably priced, decent-looking belt, all the lights went out. Talk about flashback. But a glance outside the door told us that the only place with no power was the room we were in. So...okay. But it's a fairly large room and somehow the dark seemed bigger because of it. So what do people do? They started turning on their cell phones and continued to shop by the light from the screens. And I have to say, some of those coloured screens are really bright. For pete's sake...it only lasted ten minutes. And naturally the first things to regain life were the cash registers. Naturally.

Now, for my real cell phone rant. In the middle of the standing posture sequence of my yoga class yesterday, there was a sudden and very unmistakable melody permeating through the new-age ocean wave music that the instructor always uses. Everyone sing along! "I see a red door and I want it painted black..." The instructor asked the guilty party to turn off her cell phone, and all the woman could say was that it was going to stop playing in a few seconds. Um...right...until the next minute when the person calls back? Even as the woman went to turn it off, someone else's cell started ringing. Honestly. It rang again just before the final meditation, prompting the instructor to firmly, and with no attempt to hide her irritation, say, "If anyone has a cell phone in the room and thinks that it will ring in the next ten minutes, I'd like to ask them to leave now." The second cell phone woman picked up her stuff and left the class.

Is it too much to ask people to leave their lives outside the door for one measly hour? Okay, I know better than anyone that it's easy to forget stuff like turning off the cell phone. But, seriously! It already rang once! And isn't the point of practicing yoga to relax and let go of the stress in our lives? Why bring the phone in with you?? That's like the source of all stress!! Holy crap, just thinking about it is stressing me out!!!!

Thank you, and good night.

"I have to turn my head until my darkness goes"