Journal entry from December of the year 2000: I’m about to embark on a week-long sailing trip, and I’m agonizing over what book I feel like taking. It has to “fit the mood,” it has to have at least the possibility of sparking poetry-writing… and it has to last the week. Correction: It has to last half the week, because I can swap books midway with my travel companion. I’ve already approved his selection; now he’s waiting for me to make up MY damn mind. (He’d better not give it a thumbs-down, whatever it is, when I finally settle on it!) I’m also gathering up things to be packed: my journal, a poetry notebook, a sketching pad, the packet of travel confirmations, camera & film (do I have enough film??) and I’m debating about taking my new videocamera, but I hate being plagued by the indecision of which camera to pick up in any given moment. Oh, and I’m packing an Enya cassette, in hopes that the sailboat will have a tape player.

Earlier in this same journal entry, I was talking about the “palm planner” my travel companion had just gotten. It looked like a fun toy, certainly seemed handy, but I concluded I was too much of a “pen-and-paper girl” to give up my desktop planner/organizer. Which reminded me: I needed to copy some phone numbers out of my address book in case I needed to make any calls while I’m away, and a couple addresses for sending postcards…

Have you figured out where I’m going with this?

That’s right: every one of those things got replaced by—or solved by—my iPhone. The library of eBooks, the camera(s), the music, the journal, the phone numbers, the travel confirmations… Oh, and I actually almost forgot to add: the ability to call anyone, anytime, at no charge. (Remember getting the long-distance bill every month for your landline? Remember when we didn’t call it a “landline” because there wasn’t any other kind of “line” from which it had to be differentiated?)

I don’t even have these any of these things on my packing list anymore, because they’re all already taken care of. The only thing left to pack is my phone, and that needs no reminders. I do go to the bathroom without it, but any other movement—even around the house—I generally pick it up and carry it with me. I’d sooner leave the house without my toes than without my phone.

I don’t usually need a reminder to be grateful for my phone… Still, as a gratitude-prompt, that journal entry couldn’t have been better designed if I had tried.