Why I Am Giving Up My iPhone for Lent

Last ditch effort to revive the dead phone.  Phone in a baggie full of uncooked rice and placed in oven with the light on.  It didn’t work, though the phone is still in the rice bag and now on the radiator.  The bag is also full of hope.

It all happened on Ash Wednesday.

The weather was horrendous.  The roads were icy and slippery and accident-inducing. The girls were out of school for teacher inservice, and we were heading over to a friend’s house. I slipped and fell on my own front walk before I made it to my car.

When I fell, my phone also fell right out of my purse, but I didn’t notice. I got into my car and drove out of the driveway and up the hill, where I realized I was missing my phone. I was sure I had put it into my purse, but it wasn’t there.

We turned around, and ran into the house to get it. It was nowhere to be found.  We called it several times and heard nothing. We looked in the car and couldn’t find it.  It was like it had just disappeared!

And then, as I was standing on my front walk, I remembered how I had fallen. I looked down and gasped. There was my poor little phone, lying face down in the snow, right under the car’s front tire. It was pretty obvious I had run over it.

Amazingly, it was still working and it wasn’t cracked or anything (thank you protective case), but, the melted snow didn’t dry fast enough and it was soon freaking out.  As soon as I got to my friend’s house, I put it in some rice, where it continued to turn itself on and off and generally go crazy.  Finally, it just died.

It’s been nearly a week, and despite all my efforts to revive it, it has yet to come back from the dead.

And so it appears that I will be giving up my smartphone for Lent.

I am embarrassed to admit how much this upset me. I have barely been holding myself together the last month or so.  I have been depressed about my ever-growing weight, I have forgotten how to go to the gym, the weather really gets me down in a major way, I am overwhelmed by my to-do list, I have two performances coming up to practice for, etc.etc.etc. Losing my phone, which was a huge help in keeping my life in order, was grounds for a nervous breakdown.

I barely functioned teaching voice lessons the next day. Where was my metronome? My music dictionary? My recorder? All dead with my phone.

Project 366 just got that much more difficult without it, I can’t play Words With Friends unless I am in front of my computer—which isn’t often, I don’t have something to keep my kindergartner occupied while we are waiting for her sisters, I don’t have an iPod to listen to the music I am trying to learn, I don’t have my LDS apps which were well-used, etc.etc.etc.

I’ve now had several days to come to grips with this, and I really am okay. Don’t worry. We have a plan of action, and I have my old dumb phone for now. But, I can’t believe how long it takes to text a person on it and though I can get on the internet if I want to, it’s totally clunky and stone-aged. I have definitely been spoiled.

 “To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.”

-Ken S. Keyes, Jr.

So, even if I don’t make it until Easter without replacing/repairing my smart phone, I recognize how blessed I am. It was just a phone. It wasn’t my right arm, even if it seemed like it was sometimes. It wasn’t my child. Just a phone.  Easily replaced, unlike many, many other things I could have lost or broken. And I will no longer berate myself for dropping it and then running it over.

It could have happened to anyone.

Right?

Of course right.

**************

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Hilary

I am impressed you're still living. I would have melted into a ball of tears.

Unknown

I'm kinda terrified by how much of my life I store in my phone. Seriously, this was like reading somethIng straight out of Stephen King's diary.

Unknown

And how telling is it that I was more distressed by the loss of your phone than that you fell on the ice? Seriously, I need help. I hope you're all right!!

Barbaloot

That does sound like a pain. One of the reasons I'm holding off on getting an iphone is I'm afraid I will be too reliant on it. I don't think I'd deal quite as well as you if I lost it after getting used to it.

Kazzy

The Stephen King comment… funny. 🙂

Listen, I hate to admit how attached I am to my iPhone. Seriously, I kind of get the shakes imagining running over it with my car. I don't sync often enough, and I live off of it. It has sadly become part of me, like a 5th limb.

I completely empathize. Maybe you can pick up a 3gs for cheap???

Jenny P.

I went without a smartphone for nearly six months and hated it. My calendar? It's a life saver. I've just recently replaced it and have been much happier ever since.

If you'd like to feel better about crushed electronics, my two year old pulled my laptop off the counter by the power cord. Lovely! Cracked lcd screen, among other things. 200 bucks to fix it all. Good thing I love her so much. 🙂

CB

I am also super attached to my Iphone.
I never even thought about it till I was reading this post but we have only had the Iphones a few years.
I never had a cell phone of any kind raising kids so when I was reading about how there was nothing to entertain your daughter, etc…It really got me thinking how dependent we have all become on these little devices.
Kinda Crazy!

I am sincerely sorry about the phone – Everything is in my phone now also – I would be lost!

The Atomic Mom

As I have neither a smart or a dumb phone, how does it work to get a new one? Can you just go buy one, or do they make you sign away your life, as cell phone companies are wont to do?

Anyway…sorry about your phone though… 🙁

Mindy

I am appalled some days by how often I use my android. Since I'm nursing, it keeps me entertained throughout sessions throughout the day and I am always popping into facebook. I realized recently how much I hate it when my husband comes home and constantly glances at his screen, though. So now I am conscious of how much screen time I have not just on my computer, but my phone. I nursed 2 babies without it before and I have sweet kids at home to read books with, talk to, engage with. I love technology, but sometimes it's a blessing to go without it. It is terrible to have this happen to something that you use for so many great things and I hope you replace it soon!

Erin

I don't have an iPhone, and I sort of pride myself on it. However, that's because I have an iPad and I spend approx 96% of my time inside my house, where WiFi is plentiful. If my iPad died, I might die a little inside as well. So I can sort of understand your feelings here. Good luck lasting until you can get a new one!

Charlotte

I once left mine on the roof of my car and drove off with it. The protective case kept it safe, but I felt pretty dumb about it. It died when I set it (and my jacket) on the neighbor sink while washing my hands at the middle school during parents night. Automatic sink = drowned phone.

I didn't last long before replacing it. I did feel sad about how much I needed it.

UnseasonablyWarm

RIP phone. So sorry. When we get used to something in our livlihood, it's hard to do without it – even if we did without it for years previous. It's like Flowers for Algernon.

L.T. Elliot

I did the rice trick when my baby laptop got water on it (stupid cat knocked over a cup). It worked for the baby lappy but has sadly never worked for our phones. =[

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