The electronic tether

During CPE so many years ago, two decades ago mas or menos, I hated having the pager because it would beep, calling me to some emergency, usually someone dying or who had died... I never knew if it would go off; in fact, on my days of carrying it, the thing only went off once. Lo, these many years later, I probably would do better.

Nowadays there is a new sort of pager in a different context and it is called a smart phone... the old cell phone was not nearly as invasive, though it could be sometimes. The smart phone, however, can totally upset one's life no matter where one is (that is, if one is dumb enough to check email).

Yesterday, en route to the beach with my family on a two-day break to visit with my sister from the west and nephew from the big city, I happened to check my email to get a note related to work that was sufficiently problematic as to upset the emotional balance for the rest of the day. And, so, even though the day was glorious at the beach, and I enjoyed walking down the beach with my sister and nephew and then standing in the water (jellyfish so I did not swim), inside, I was totally off-kilter, worried and anxious. Said problem will not be resolved until next week at the earliest so I will continue to be in that state of flux.

And then there was talking to the canon to the ordinary as I drove down to my parents', and fielding frantic phone messages from parishioners in distress...

Lest anyone think that part-time priests don't earn their keep, let me remind them of the electronic tether.