What Matters
23 Jul
Two weeks ago, I was poised to try to get an iPhone on the first day. I wasn’t going to camp out or anything, but I was going to come early and hopefully get one of these shiny new devices. Friends had suggested that I bring my camera so I could document the event.
Wednesday I get a call that my cousins’ father had died. I don’t really call him my uncle because I never really knew him. I’d swear I’ve only seen him twice in my life but for all intents and purposes he was my uncle. My aunt met him in Chicago, got married and moved to Los Angeles. I’d only see her once or twice a year after that. The children that they had (three girls) are young enough to be my children. Unfortunately, my aunt passed away 10 years ago when the youngest was three years old.
My uncle had moved back to his hometown of Moorhead, Mississippi last year when he became ill. My uncle (mother’s brother) told me that I could fly into Jackson, MS (96 miles away) or Memphis, TN (150 miles away) and that the hotel where he was staying was 20 miles from Moorhead in Greenwood. Honestly, I had never had ANY intention to ever stepping foot in Mississippi or Tennessee; it’s something that was ingrained in me from watching documentaries and historical movies – Emmett Till was killed in the Greenwood area. I am afraid of those places. Since my family is not from there I never thought I would have a reason to go.
The iPhone launch was in the back of my mind because I really did want an iPhone but I had to do something – my cousins needed me to be there for them. The dilemma, however, was that I didn’t WANT to go to this place. After some soul searching I decided to do as much as possible to get to Mississippi. On Thursday I managed to get two tickets to Memphis with frequent flyer miles after hours of searching for the right itineraries. I managed to get hotel and car reservations as well and Friday my mother and I were in Mississippi.
While I did see iPhone chatter on Twitter, it was the furthest thing from my mind. The fact of the matter is in the grand scheme of things, an iPhone, while cool and shiny, is unimportant and (dare I say) irrelevant. A few years from now we’ll be talking about whatever the latest shiny thing is then.
What really matters is our families, our friends and society as a whole. Can you imagine what would happen if the passion for iPhones and other tech toys were harnessed for some greater cause? How many are willing to camp out all night for something worthy of that kind of passion? Surely we could all chip in a few bucks to help find cures for cancer and AIDS. Surely we could all get together to find a way to stamp out poverty. Perhaps we could all find a way to put pressure on our largely lethargic Congress to make them accomplish something. The possibilities are endless.
Shiny things get dull, but attending to the things that really matter, in the long run, never goes out of style.
(Disclosure: I do have an iPhone on order. I also donate time and money to various non-profit organizations in the DC area and am looking to do more.)
Photo credit for iPhone launch: Michael Domingo
