charge yourself some happy

Today, as I was having lunch at a local restaurant, I was approached by a man carrying a shiny, new Apple iPhone. Taken by surprise, I frantically blotted away the hot mustard from the corners of my mouth and looked up. The man asked if he could borrow my phone because his battery had died. I was a bit skeptical considering the battery life of an iPhone is supposed to be about 3 years and 4 months, but agreed to let him borrow my phone anyway. After making a roughly 1-minute call, he handed my phone back and further explained his predicament. He told me he had left the charger for his iPhone in a hotel room and never got it back. He said he couldn’t get a new one because they are expensive.

Come again? The man spent between $500 and $600 on a cell phone! I wished the man luck, but on the inside I admit I was laughing a little bit. The United States is quickly becoming the most disgustingly materialistic place in the world where everyone has to have all the newest junk before anyone else (to the extent that they will camp out overnight for a video game system or cell phone). Only in America have people been shot and killed for a pair of Air Jordans or an mp3 player. The sad thing about the situation today is, I bet this guy saved up for months for a phone he now can’t use until he saves up enough for a new charger. I watched the man walk back over to his table, sit down, and resume his web-surfing on his iMac. I, on the other hand, had to drive my 10-year-old car home and turn on my three-year-old desktop computer to write this blog.

©2007 LBB

~ by tex on August 27, 2007.