There’s a guy that hits the local pool where I swim…
He’s there with his 4 year old daughter almost every time I go there.
I have a feeling he’s a stay at home dad.
When he walks into the pool area he always has his face buried in his iPhone.
And he keeps it there from start to finish.
This guy has a serious cellphone addiction. When his girl calls him he rarely
even looks up. And only responds to her about half the time.
Pathetic would be the perfect word to describe this guys parenting skills.
More than once I’ve dreamed of walking up to him. Slapping him upside the head.
And screaming into his ear, WAKE UP!!!
That phone is a prison buddy. Not a life. Your REAL life is standing right
there in front of you. So put the damn phone down and go get it.
We never had that conversation. But something happened yesterday that made it
entirely unnecessary.
It was January 7th and we were blessed here in So Cal with a clear 70 degrees of
sunshine.
And once again our boy walks in. Follows his idiotic routine. And buries his face
deep inside his electronic box.
No fun time with his daughter. No looking up at the beautiful blue sky. Just him
and the tiny rectangle prison his hand.
But this day wasn’t going to be like all the rest…
His little girl has been trained to say in the shallow end near the stairs because
she can’t swim.
But yesterday she showed up with a plastic ball. A ball that drifted away from the
stairs. And guess what?
She followed it!
And I was watching her closely because back in the day I worked as a life guard. And I
know that drowning victims rarely act like you’d expect.
The arm waving, screaming and splashing you often see in movies almost never happens.
A typical drowning is much calmer proposition…
A few head bobs. The final dip where the head never comes back up to the surface.
Then it’s game over.
Well, this little girl started tip toeing toward her ball with her nose barely breaking
the water line.
As she went deeper she managed to keep her nostrils above water for about 10 seconds.
Then the first head bob came.
I looked over at Mr. Cellphone. But he wasn’t living in this world. He was still
inside the dead box.
So I called out to him. Then pointed to his girl who was right in the middle of
head bob number two.
He came flying out of his chair. Jumped into the water. And saved her from an
almost certain death.
If I had passed on the pool yesterday, I’m positive this story would not have
had such a happy ending.
Anyway, there’s a powerful lesson to be learned here…
Real life happens outside the box. So put yours down. And start living it.
Mark
P.S. Cellphone addiction does more than destroy your personal life. It can do
a number on your hormones as well.
In This Article I outline a few steps you can take to minimize the damage.
