Availability

The Split Second-In Consideration of Others in These Trying Times or Look Up from the Phone

I want to write about a topic I call “personal availability”. I think there will be more than one blog on this one. With the technology/digital age, each one of us can be reached by cellphone/landline voicemail, e-mail, and texting. I remember a time when none of those was available to us. Yes, I date myself, and how times have changed.

I am being a bit too concrete when I describe two types of people involving messages that have been sent: 1.) the impatient sender and 2.) the rude receiver. The impatient sender is one like my next-door neighbor (we used to get along very well but things have radically changed with that acquaintance). She sends e-mails or leaves voicemails or texts and expects an immediate response. She is impatient if the message is not returned within minutes. One time, she left me a text asking me to meet a gentleman who was in front of our complex to work on our security system. He was right there at that moment when she left the text! I did not see the text for another hour after she sent it. I had to put on appropriate clothes and then I ran outside to meet the gentleman. Of course, he had left by the time I made it out front. In another incident when I was Social Studies Department Chairperson at a local high school, one of my duties was to work with student teachers. I would be contacted by an instructor at the local university to arrange to have these soon-to-be teachers work with us. One gentleman who did this often for us at my school was very impatient with his reaching out to me. He knew I would be teaching class when he called during the day during the week. He would call my cell phone, then my home phone, and then he would call the previous department chairperson because according to him, I was unavailable. He needed me to be available when he called. No consideration that I just could not speak with him when he called.

What my neighbor and the university instructor needed to think through concerns that the person he/she was trying to reach was unavailable and could not speak. I have found that many people have the attitude, “I must talk to her/him now! And she/he must be available right now to speak with me.”  The Split Second discusses that often the people we need or want to speak with are not available. It is nice that we have the luxury of voicemail and texting; however, the person may take some time to respond.

On the other hand, there is a person who never responds to a text, e-mail, or voicemail. This is just as rude as demanding an immediate response to a message. There are many of these folks. Yes, a message does not have to be responded to right away, but responding to it in a timely manner unless the sender is not a friend, family member, or essential business contact is the kind thing to do. None of us can be available all the time for people in our lives, but it is nice to return the communication as soon as possible.

I just still might get this book published. Who knows?