the cord

“Sometimes friends rust 
When they forget how to trust
We hurt the most 
The ones we truly love

Put down your walls
And call”

–Joseph Arthur, “Call”

I was trying to figure out why the imagery of a corded phone in this video appealed to me so much…

…when I realized that it’s because I hardly even think of phones as phones anymore. A phone is something we use to text people, or to play games, or to get directions. If I actually do talk on my phone, it’s an unpleasant process that usually lasts around thirty seconds. 

When I see a corded phone, I think of how phones used to be exclusively for talking to each other. I think of the old AT&T slogan, “Reach out and touch someone,” and that word touch makes me think of how much more tactile phones were for me when they had cords. I remember talking to my high school girlfriend into the middle of the night, how gripping the receiver felt not unlike holding her close, how my fingers would run up and down the cord like they might run up and down her arm when we were together. Today’s sleek little rectangles offer me none of that. I always feel like they might just slip away from me.

There’s someone I wish I could reach out and call, someone I wish I could reach out and touch. But I hate talking on phones nowadays. I wonder if I’d feel different about it if I still had a phone that gave me something to hold onto.