Talking To Myself

Do you remember ever being told to stop talking to yourself in a loud voice?

It happened to me often when very young. I would continue in my mind an argument I had with a friend, or at school, and would find myself exclaiming "No way!" or "YES!" or other such comments and then, I might have laughed out loud or continued to be angry with the invisible partner to my one sided discussion... I was told that only crazy people talk to themselves and that if I continued, I would be considered crazy and put away in a sanatorium.

Nowadays, there is an ad on the local TV, with the main actress a very old looking lady, ugly as sin and pushing something in front of her, or maybe, dragging it behind -- important only for one thing -- to show that her hands are occupied with something. And she talks to herself in a very loud and clear voice, so we know she would not go on a holiday because of her cats.

She is the very personification of the homeless bag-lady, but she has a message for us, "if you want, you can be just like me..." Because when she looks up at the balcony of the house she's just passing by, we can see she has something attached to her ear. She is not deaf, she is not crazy... She is talking on the phone!

Don't you want to be just like her? Have a hands free telephone so that you can walk the streets without stopping your chat and go to your fate unaware of anything else happening on the street? For me the telephone is a tool to be enjoyed -- I like sitting in an armchair and take an occasional sip of coffee from my mug, while exchanging news with my friends, not rushing in the traffic with a crazy look about myself, talking loud enough to be heard over the noise of the street... Yes, I'm older than teenage, but nothing is so important that cannot wait till I am comfortable to use a telephone...

This weekend I was in the store with my husband and a man passed us talking to himself. Pardon me! talking to his ear-attached telephone, probably getting last instructions from his significant other.

What if every one in the store were to talk like that, passing each other without ever connecting, too absorbed in their private conversations to be bothered placing orders or going home... What if everyone in the street, in cars, buses, trains, were talking on their mini phones hidden behind one of their ears, like a loony asylum including the whole population?

Yes, go and buy your own phone to be attached to your head, maybe implanted behind your ear so that you cannot lose it, but cannot leave it behind either! Forever connected to the crazy chatters in your ear, like a new hell punishment, for there is no peace for the damned...

14.01.2010