STEVIE WONDER: "I Just Called To Say I Love You"

I read an article in a magazine one day about people who don't have a phone at home. A simple, classical phone. An ordinary fixed line. A phone that rings, firm and determined, in stead of broadcasting one of the latest pop hits like the fancy mobile phones do nowadays. A phone that waits for you, steadily, but without compassion if you are too late to pick it up when you are not near to it. A phone that will still produce sound, even if you are not at home. A phone that witnesses all conversations you have, that hears everything, but keeps all your secrets.

Seated in the cosy comfort of a civilised, first-class city-state, one finds it hard to imagine that people can still do without a phone in these modern times. But imagine for a while...Go back into time, not all too far, and wipe out just only our cell phones, not even the fixed line phones. Cell phones seem to give us that false security that we are not alone, that we are important for others, that we do matter for those who call us or sms us. Just forget about it for a while. Forget about those tiny, wireless bundles of plastic and electronics that we carry along from dusk till dawn. Forget about those superficial messages, which devalue holy words spoken between loved ones, which tear down emotions like statues from their pedestal, which are mere anonymous, desperate cries for water of attention in the vast desert.

When people want to thank somebody, they should tell it in their own blunt words, from person to person. Words will then be more than some cold, square and rapid ticks on a keypad " thx"... Words will be spoken gently, warm and round "I really thank you for what you did". Eyes should tell a similar story as can be read from lips. One should feel the strength of embracing arms, much tighter than a hand can ever hold a phone. The memory of 1 free moment of happiness will last a lifetime, much longer than 1,000 free sms's ever will.