It’s Friday Night which means it is time for poetry in Five!  The word this week is Patience (note, I went to the FMF facebook page to get the word and I guess Patience was the Tuesday word, which I didn’t notice until now.  I already wrote on Patience so, my apologies fellow FMFers for having the word wrong).  My 5 min. ran out about halfway through the poem today, but I was having fun with it so I continued on.  Hopefully my readers have a sense of humor and will laugh at this (I love making you guys smile!), because this week’s poem is meant to be funny, satirical and a bit hyperbole.  I went the direction of relating patience (or lack thereof) to the challenges of living in a modern society of instant gratification with smart phones at our finger tips and an overwhelm of social media/technology things.  I call my poem “Who Needs Patience When You’ve Got a Cell phone?!”  (disclaimer- I don’t actually live my life like the poem reads, this is a satire.  I usually leave my cell phone in another room at dinner, date nights with my man, or when I’m spending time with friends and family. 😉 )

 

 

 

 

Who Needs Patience When You’ve Got a Cell Phone?!

 

Thank God I don’t live in my Granny’s day

Where there weren’t any cell phones on which to play,

I can’t imagine just what I’d do

With those minutes of waste that I’d accrue!

For now there isn’t a moment to spare,

I can text while I put on my underwear!

From the moment I wake ’til the moment I sleep,

I won’t have to be bored- I can Chat, Post and Tweet!

I can Skype on the road while I’m driving to work,

Or get on YouTube to watch Miley twerk.

On lunch break I’ll sort through my email’s spam,

And post pics of what I ate on Instagram!

Sitting on the toilet’s no longer a bore,

I’ve got Candy Crush Saga, Farmville and More!

So productive am I that it makes my head spin,

But at least I don’t have to wait idly for din (dinner)!

My partner and I Facebook in our seats,

While we wait for the waitress to bring us our treats.

The couple in the next booth is doing the same,

So I assure you, we are perfectly sane.

And then while we eat we check our phones,

In response to the growing number of notification tones!

But alas, it appears that my battery’s draining,

Only 7.7 percent is remaining.

Just one last selfie before it quits,

I wonder how many “likes” it will get?!

As I plug my phone in, I think of poor granny,

Who lived in a time before cell phones were any.

At work, or at home, or out on a date-

I’m so glad I don’t have to be bored while I wait!

And with that thought, I turn down the sheets,

Put on my jammies and de-sock my feet.

As I and my partner snuggle in bed,

Visions of Pinterest things dance in my head.

If only my cell phone wasn’t dead…

The End.

©Rebekah Ann Stephenson 2014

 

 

 

Ha!  Can you relate to any of this?

We are living in interesting times.  It’s hard to believe in just the 15 short years since I graduated high school, how much cell phones have take over.  When I graduated in ’99, cell phones were only used for emergencies (like to have in your car if it broke down for instance) and none of my friends or I had them until a few years later.  Of course now, people can’t live without them and it has really changed how we all function.  People have a hard time just BEING in the moment without having to DO some thing.

 

When you think about how we are used to having a device attached to us so that we are never bored, or without something extra to do (multi-tasking anyone?) it is no wonder why people are having less and less patience today.  I think about my grandparents and specifically my great grandparents who lived to see a lot of changes- great grandma being born in 1901 and living to see the new Millennium.  They had to have patience back then.  Everything took longer.  Life was slower.  And while they worked hard (due to lack of modern conveniences) , life was simpler too.

 

Washing clothes was an all day event for my great grandma.  So was travelling to see relatives by horse and buggy to the nearest bigger city (which is only about 30 min. away by car now, but took hours back then).  I have to say, while I am grateful for modern technology and use it daily, I also wish I could turn back the clock some days.  Thankfully God has blessed me with a lot of patience.  I wonder if I live to be over 100 like my great grandma, how many changes will I witness over my life time?  I dare say things are moving at an even faster speed now than they were during her lifetime!

 

 

Keep finding the humor and inspiration in everyday life!

With love, Rebekah