It seems that the world has taken on the belief that everyone now utilizes devices such as the “Crackberry”, oops, I mean “Blackberry”. Well, that is not the case. I, for one, still use my trusty Franklin book organizer. The last time I checked, it does not have plug-in, synching or battery features.

Case in point: I recently drove out to see a client (not a short distance, I might add), only to find that my client was quite startled to see me. I asked him why he was surprised as we had set the date of this meeting a week ago. He indicated that he had an emergency come up and that he had sent me an e-mail an hour prior asking for a re-schedule. As I was not anywhere near my computer prior to my departure, the message never reached me.

He thought that for sure I should have seen his e-mail on my PDA. (WHAT PDA!!!) I simply pointed to my aged organizer book. He was incredulous that I was still using “such an ancient system”.

First of all, I do believe that I am not the last person on this Earth to use this form of organization (which does, believe it or not, have a calendaring section). Should anyone bother to note the volume of such systems sold at places like Franklin-Covey stores, Staples, Office Depot, etcetera, it would be revealed to them that while I seem to be a member of a decreasing population, there are still millions of us around the world still utilizing such a medium.

Second of all, I see that more and more people have grown a certain disdain for that instrument invented by one, Alexander Graham Bell. This is especially prevalent in the Generation ‘X’ or Generation ‘Y’ (or whatever alphabetical moniker is assigned to those “younger folks”), who text, instant message or, in only the remotest of circumstances use e-mail. But NEVER seem to think of using a telephone!

God forbid someone should pick up a phone and actually have a voice-to-voice conversation with another of the same species. NOTE-yes, I have a cell phone, however it is just a cell phone. I did not opt for the features that would have me find my car in a parking lot or know where the closest Proctologist is located in my geographical area.

The world needs to be a bit more respectful to those of us who have elected to not have a ’24-7’ device grafted to our hip. Isn’t a cell phone’s accessibility pervasive enough?

The person calls you back, saying “Hi, I see that you called me,” And then there is silence. You break the silence by asking “Do you have the answers to my questions?” Their response many times is “Oh, I didn’t bother to listen to your message. I’m just returning your call.” Now it’s up to you to remember what questions you originally asked.

Now that’s VOICE-MAIL EXASPERATION. I’m aware that we live in an age wherein speed and multi-tasking is the norm, yet I consider this to be duly lacking in respect.Maybe the new age announcement on our voice-mail should state: “Hi, I’m out right now and because I’m such a very busy person, only leave your name and number as I will not likely bother to listen to why you called in the first place.”

Oh yes, there is also what I call VOICE-MAIL SUICIDE. This is when the individual you are calling has their voice-mail announcement stating, “The person to whom you are calling has their mailbox filled to capacity, therefore you will not be able to leave a message at this time…CLICK”. Why not have it simply state-”My great aunt just died leaving me a small fortune, therefore I do not need your business any longer.”

Then there is my absolute favorite. The person leaves a long, rambling message that you are forced to listen to in order to gather an iota of the purpose for their call. It is not until the very end of their monologue that they grace you with the reason for the call. The topper is they then leave their phone number at a verbal light speed that no human ear could discern and promptly hang up.

In this age of bragging about how much we can accomplish in a given day, perhaps it would be a pretty good idea to see that by slowing down we, many times, get much farther down the road en route to our goal.