A Thought of the Day - the answer machine.

Hey! Did you know that “A Thought of The Day”- the bit of the blog that only gets published on a Sunday and which this year IS the blog …. sort of – has an answer-phone?

No I didn’t know that. How come you do?

I saw a flashing light in the corridor.

I didn’t even know that we had a corridor!

You should get out more.

I should.

Why don’t you?

No one invites me, no one ever phones….

But they do! Well …. maybe not the invite …. but someone phoned! There’s a message on the answer phone!

Answer-phone? Do we have an answer-phone?

I just told you! Don’t you ever listen?

To the answer-phone? Can we?

Yes! Press the green flashing light.

Clic

Wow!

Who was it?

No idea, they didn’t leave a name, just a very, very long message. Makes you think though.

Maybe we could use it for our thought of the day?

That’s a good idea, should we transcript it?

No stick it on whole.

Ok. See you next week.

I hope so!

Hi.

This morning I picked up my daughter’s phone to see if I could use it.

She’s 18, it’s smart and I’m not.

It has drag down, slide across, twiddle with your fingers and thumbs technology; I don’t.

It used to be my phone, it was given to me by a spotty and under-aged shop assistant in the boutique where I had gone to complain that I was paying to much subscription for a mobile phone that no one ever calls me on.

He looked at me as if I was a fossil and signed me up to a new subscription in which I had to promise to continue paying until the day I die – something the shop assistant clearly thought was not so distant.

It meant I had to have a new phone number and a new phone.

I tried for a week to get to digital grips with it then gave up, gave it to my daughter who had lost her latest and transferred the SIM- thingy back into my old model which the shop assistant had dismissed as the one chosen by builders and farmers.

Neither of which I am.

But this morning I thought, if she can do it then I can.

I was wrong.

After watching me fumble for a bit she sighed – something that was heard in the next village – and took it from me.

Deftly she did whatever it is young people do with their smart phones.

And there on the screen was a picture of two naked young children, about three years old backlit by and bathed in sunshine. There was quintessential warmth in the photo – a reminder of lost innocence, lost youth coupled with infinite hope and beauty.

You could see the sunbeams dancing around them and their unmanaged hair glowed in what was probably a late afternoon in mid summer.

I thought it was a stock image from an online media bank and concentrated on trying to understand how one generation’s thumbs can differ so much from another’s when you share genetic components.

“Did you notice the photo?” asked Minnie.

“Yes nice light” I replied looking for my glasses.

“No, did you notice?” she repeated.

Clearly I hadn’t.

“You took it,” she sighed.

What is it with teenagers and sighs?

I looked again.

It was my daughter, fifteen years ago, sitting with her best friend.

They were born 8 days apart and have been inseparable since.

I was present at both their births.

In fact they were too.

I started to cry.

“What’s wrong daddy?”

And that………

…….made me cry even more.

Editors Note - snow on the internet delayed publication in some areas yesterday, please accept our frozen apologies.