Texting All the Time

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN, if you think about it. And if you think about it, its bound to happen again, and again. Somebody in a movie theatre was killed in a dispute involving texting. You can almost write the script. During an expensive, crowded movie, in an important, quiet part, somebody starts texting, somebody else gets mad about it, and somebody has a gun, or deadly weapon. In a country filled to overflowing with cell phones, guns, and angry people, what else would you expect? Will we soon have a another new class of psychotic behavior to add to our thickening texts books: texting rage? Will it be a uniquely American phenomenon, or will it manifest globally, like road rage? Road rage is highly concentrated in these United States, but not unknown anywhere where cars are driven. But, somehow, road rage just seems, so...."American". You literally cannot drive down any street in America without seeing somebody's car within inches of your rear bumper. Nor can you, in these United States, engage in a face to face conversation of any length, on any topic, with anyone, without being interrupted by a damnable cell phone. And we almost always choose to take our calls, don't we? Or rather, we expect other people to take our calls, but we reserve for ourselves the sacred right to screen. We never really finish our conversations in this country. Maybe if enough of us walk into walls while texting, we'll rediscover the beauty of the world around us.