Good News - July 2019

In today's world if you forget your cell phone, you're likely to panic. Good News Wants to Know... What was your life like before cell phones? When I started my career thank goodness there were beepers and pay-phones. If you were calling back long distance, you had better have a pocket full of quarters and good eyes to spot a payphone as you drove down the street, and hopefully there was not too big a line to use the phone and it worked. Don Campion , Founder/CEO, Banyan Air Service Wow! Life before a cell phone…? I remember having a beeper during Chiropractic school in the ’90s. A patient would beep and the vibra- tion spurred on an immediate search for the nearest phone. Land lines were the thing! My future hus- band and I created expensive long- distance phone bills calling back and forth from Connecticut to Georgia. One day Jeff sent me a flip phone in the mail and ever since, our phones have gotten sleeker and smarter. Dr. Andrea Hazim , Founder and President, Elev8Life Educational Foundation My life before cell phones was simple, but I was a child. I would go outside and play/hangout with my friends. I also remember when we used a home phone. Many times I couldn't wait to get home from school and talk with my friends on the phone; however, the downfall was anyone could pick up another phone in the house and listen to the conversation. Ariana Reid , Executive Director, Hope Women's Centers Ahh yes… life before cell phones, which should include life before email and text messaging as well. Early on we relied on our dad’s whistle, which could be heard a block away, or the mini cow bell that our mom used to call us home. There was uninterrupted conversation, eye to eye, which resulted in a clear communication of feelings and intentions. Communication had lulls which caused us to “pause and think” before we wrote or spoke in a response — a novel idea today. Yes, the pace was slower, the communi- cation reflected more thoughtful, kind responses, and as a result, our rela- tionships had the opportunity to grow deeper and in a more positive way. William “Bill” C. Davell , Director, Tripp Scott Attorneys at Law My first cell phone was in 1985, so my memories before that are fading. However, I do recall many times calling from a pay phone with little privacy. I now enjoy the privacy and the efficiency which comes with the cell phone. Dr. William “Bill” Fleming , President, Palm Beach Atlantic University My life was less scattered with not so many "dings." The beeper world was the preliminary cell phone stress syndrome. Bill Hobbs, Executive Director, Urban Youth Impact My life was so sad before cell phones. I had a dumb beeper that did nothing but tell me someone was trying to reach me. #143. Before that I had nothing but a landline phone in my parent's kitchen with a really long cord that wrapped around anything it touched. Cell phones are amazing, and they make us better human beings. The weather, my emails, my bank account, all my photos and Marlins baseball are all a quick glance away. Bob Denison , President, Denison Yachting Life was definitely more intentional before cell phones in that I had to be more relational and personal in my day to day life. Charles Bender , founder/CEO, Place of Hope Before cell phones, I got to think about things a lot more before we ex- pressed ourselves on a subject. I could reflect on conversations and cor- respondence, thinking deeply about things versus now when an immediate response is what is demanded. Before cell phones gave us freedom to move outside of the office, I enjoyed certain boundaries between profes- sional and personal lives that allowed me to escape, which I no longer enjoy. Before cell phones, the pace and demands of my life were slower and simpler and the amount of information was much more limited; now everyone, including me, seems to be hurrying through social media posts and floods of information with little time to consider what the LORD would have my response to be. Before cell phones, there were a lot fewer inter- ruptions into my life. The urgency of a ringing, dinging, vibrating cell phone that DEMANDS to be answered and looked at and responded to interferes with some really important things that should command and keep my at- tention, and I guess that sums it up best: before cell phones, what was really important was easier to discern. Work-life balance was much easier to maintain before cell phones, and I had a cell phone in my car when that was the only place you could get them, next carried a brick, then a Black- berry, and now I have an iPhone. It’s hard to remember what it was like before them, but thanks for remindingme! H. Collins Forman , Jr., P.A. One time it would have been great to have had a cell phone was when I had only three days to drive from Florida to Idaho to start a new job as a High School teacher. My car broke down in the desert, which necessitated my having to hitch hike about 60 miles to the nearest town with my Labrador Retriever between the trucker and me. In town, it took some time to locate enough change so I could use a phone booth to call various towing services until I was able to find one that was willing to go with me out to my car. I had to drive through the night the last night to make it in time for the first day of school! Deborah Cusick , FAU Campus Volunteer, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Wants to Know… Dr. Andrea Hazim Ariana Reid William “Bill” Davell William “Bill” Fleming Bill Hobbs BobDenison Don Campion