Those Devilish Cell Phones

A beautiful sunset in front of her, but her
cell phone has all of her attention.

I don’t have the patience to learn patience, and its Thursday…my patience supply is severely depleted. I don’t even want to hear my cell phone ding.

Are cell phones of the devil? I grew up in a religion where just about anything could be evil. If “they” didn’t like it, understand it, or think of it, it just might be of the devil.

They may not be so very far from wrong. What happened to the good old days when you didn’t have your conversation interrupted because “Oh, I have another call.” (Even my mom does that!)

There was a time when you didn’t have to pause your face to face conversation until your lunch companion could answer that call, respond to that text, play that next word on Words with Friends…on that devil’s plaything.

Remember those quiet moments when you just couldn’t be reached? Cell phones put an end to that because, you know, there’s apparently no “off” button.

With cell phones, too many bosses feel they have 24/7 access to you.

What about those days when you didn’t see even one person walking around with their eyes glued to a device in their hands? Or talking to the air…I mean that little thing clipped to their ear.

There was a time when you could make a mistake in public (or have a really bad day and do something stupid) and it not be in danger of being in a viral video complete with comments meant to shame you for simply being human.

Since when did “viral” take on a new meaning? If I think about it long enough “viral” actually makes sense for the whole cell phone debacle.

I wonder…if parents weren’t glued to a cell phone, would most of the forgotten children who have died in hot cars over the past few years still be alive? (I don’t believe for a moment all of them were forgotten, but some surely were. We are indescribably too distracted when year after year people forget their babies are in the car.)

How many other people would still be alive had they not been killed by distracted drivers on cell phones?

Would you have ever imagined 20 years ago that somebody's best friend would be a hand-held device? It goes everywhere they go, work, church, bathroom, bed. Personal interaction has been replaced by a mini-computer. People have years-long relationships with people they’ve never touched!

What if people paid as much attention to their children, their mate, their friends…their church family, their Lord, their Bible…it would surely be a different world.

The word "their" is looking funny to me now. It's time to close the post. I think my cell phone may be ringing, or dinging, or just waiting for me to pick it up to see if I’ve missed a text, or if it’s my turn to play a word or roll the dice.

Photo Fallout

KG waving us goodbye!
(Photo by Greg Hernandez
Wikimedia Commons)

Kathy Griffin (KG)
I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.  She was led to believe nothing was off limits in this godless society with its rebellion against authority and lack of respect in general.  She is paying a heavy price for her action: CNN canned her, Squatty Potty dumped her, and venues are canceling her all over the country.  But I wonder if her greatest surprise in this fiasco was realizing she really didn’t have any friends to back her. Anderson Cooper, her CNN New Year’s Eve Cohost, the ladies of The View, Chelsea Clinton, and Hollywood starlets like Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano to name a few, all publically decried the deed. Even Roseanne Barr had some pretty unprintable things to say.

(Is it just me, or do you find it hard to pray for people whose opinions, values, and morals are completely different from yours when they are very in-your-face about it? I often do, and therefore, I often don’t.  I freely admit my attitude needs adjusting.  Loving others doesn't always come easy.)

Unfortunately, instead of letting this blow over, KG continues to stir the proverbial pot:

Lisa Bloom
KG hired attorney Lisa Bloom to make things much, much worse. I’m sure that wasn’t the intention, but that was the result. In the first few sentences, Bloom managed to alienate even further those people she was hired to manipulate. (Yes…when we get down to it, that is exactly what she was trying to do.)

Then KG took the microphone and blamed older white guys, being a woman in a male-dominated field, President Trump, his grown children, and the First Lady, saying the First Family is "personally trying to ruin my life forever.”

Sadly, she just may believe that…

but she really only has herself to blame, doesn’t she?

Bloom called the photo an “edgy work of artistic expression,” and said that Kathy was fine with knowing the photo could be interpreted in different ways. Bloom stated that it was misinterpreted as a threat of violence towards President Trump, and added,

“…as soon as she (KG) learned that this is how it was being perceived (as a threat of violence), she was horrified, and she took down the picture, and she asked the photographer to take it down. And as fast as possible, she videoed a heartfelt apology, literally begging us for forgiveness. That should have been the end of it.”

Not exactly, Lisa. I think what KG does not realize…and most of the world with her…is that she is reaping years of sowing disrespect toward others while falsely labeling it “comedy.”  (God is not mocked, what is sown will be reaped. Galatians 6:7)

When was it exactly that comedy ceased to be funny and became hateful, disrespectful, and mean? How did the Kathy Griffins and Stephen Colberts slip in with their vile verbal garbage and dupe people into believing it was okay, that it was art…that it was funny?

People are deceived. We are living under a huge cloud of lies and deception, lawlessness, crudeness…and we have become a nation entrenched in self-love, greed, bragging, proud, blasphemers, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  (The last days...2 Timothy 3)

We really need Jesus.

Yes, Jesus Christ.

The one to whom KG held up her Emmy and said things to Him I will not type.

Ken Jennings
Remember the record-breaking Jeopardy! winner? With all of the backlash and criticism against KG, Ken Jennings apparently thought it was a good idea to tweet mocking remarks about Barron Trump’s reaction to “the photo.” I have to wonder if he was either hacked (but considering the last time I looked, there were well over 4,000 comments condemning his words and calling for his publishing company, Simon & Schuster, to drop him, I don’t believe he was hacked) or if he is mentally unstable.  He writes children’s books, yet chose to ride Kathy’s coattail into career suicide?  It will be interesting to see if he faces any consequences.

Tyler Shields
Do you know who Tyler Shields is?  He is the photographer who took the infamous KG photo, and it seems to have been his idea.  His comments about it?  He wouldn’t change anything even if he could, and said, “I can’t censor myself.” Again, another slap in the face for KG, as it may very well have marred her career permanently, and he’s just fine with that.

UPDATE: According to an article by Peter Sblendorio and Leonard Greene on nydailynews.com, Shields said the photo was mostly Griffin’s idea. “She came to me,” Shields said. “She said she’d like to do something political, that she’d love to do something that makes a statement. It’s always a collaboration. It wasn’t completely her, but it wasn’t completely me, either. Without Kathy, I would have never done a photo like that.”

The View
It galled me to call the co-hosts of The View 'ladies'…well, two in particular, with one riding the fence. I’ll let you decide who’s who. Or ask, I don’t mind sharing my opinion. (I should probably pray about my opinion and words about others.)  The View sometimes surprises me.

Prayer
My remarks about prayer are done in complete sincerity. They need prayer. America needs prayer. I definitely need prayer. When Paul said “pray without ceasing,” I believe he knew that there was always, always issues that needed God’s attention, then and now!  The Bible tells us that Jesus often got alone with God and prayed.  If He did it, it’s for sure I should be, even if I don’t see the results I am seeking.  Have I prayed for Griffin, Jennings, Shields, or the ladies of The View? No. Will I?  I do not know.

Sometimes, the pollution of the news, social media, 

and life, in general, chokes me.

I hope your weekend is a grand one.