Now a Memory: A Black Berry First

Friday morning, to my delight , I heard the pitter patter of little feet outside my door when I was staying at a friends house. After a faint knock, a little head peeked its way into the room to check if I was still sleeping.

The toddler, Tori, was checking to see if Aunt Judy was ready to play after a long night in the newsroom. With her mommy by her side, she came to visit. Within thirty seconds my Black Berry, programed to spit out a funny submarine sonar sound, began to do its thing signaling incoming e-mails.

Aunt Judy became a distant second to the Black Berry. We asked Tori several times to “just look, don’t touch” for fear she would slam a button and call someone. Surrendering to her curiosity, I asked her to bring the device over to me so we could look at it together.

This two year old was galvanized. “Light,” she said referring to the way it lit up when you hit the button. “Square, circle,” she excitedly exclaimed while pointing to the icons on the screen.

Then she grabbed for the phone and hit the “call” button. She phoned an executive producer at the news station where both her mom and I work. That’s when Tori’s first lesson in Black Berrys came to an end. Her mom and I laughed it off and I locked the phone. But Tori’s fascination didn’t end there. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of it and waited patiently for the next “bing” to come. She even put it up to her face as if to hug it. She wanted it to talk to her again.

I saw myself in that moment, waiting for the next hit of email to satiate me. We all do this. It’s addictive. With just an hour before heading to work again, I opted to put the BB to sleep for a bit  instead choosing the company of this adorable little girl.

The way we use our Black Berrys, and the way we choose to spend our time efficiently and consciously correlates with the way we balance work and life. It was a small choice to put BB to bed for a bit, but the reward of this precious little angel helped abate the need for my BB hit.

The BB will always be there, but this little girl will soon grow up and I wanted to take in what will soon become a memory – ironically – Tori’s first encounter with a BB.