by Ginger Philbrick
Caught! Betrayed by a little thing no larger than a popsicle—my cell phone.
It was during a very sweet funeral service. A family member of the deceased was giving a eulogy. Her words relayed a mix of both somber and humorous memories. I was completely absorbed in them and, when I became aware of the soft and distant music of chimes, I thought the pianist was masterfully accompanying the speaker with a melodic background. It came to me all at once that the music was not coming from the front of the sanctuary, but from somewhere around my feet. And then the music became very familiar; it was my cell phone tone tinkling up from my purse, which I had placed on the floor.
My life flashed in front of me, at least the part during which I have been writing about manners and the possible evils of the cell phone. I dove for my purse, grabbed the happily singing phone and choked it.
Other than my great embarrassment over having failed to turn the phone off before the service, most of that experience turned out to be positive. I noticed that none of those people sitting around me turned to see who the sinner was and even my husband sitting on my right pretended not to notice.
However, perhaps the kindest non-response came from Mr. Mason, the editor of this newspaper, who was sitting to my left. Trying to make light of the situation, I turned to him when the service was over and said, “So, what do you think about my writing my next column on cell phone manners?” His reply, “Oh, was that your phone?”
I couldn’t have thought of a more polite response myself.
Ginger Philbrick is the owner of Because You Are Polite LLC. You are invited to email your manners questions to her and she will respond as time and space allow. You may contact her at youarepolite1@gmail.com.
