What? I can't hear you over the Gekko. (photo: Wall Steet (1987 IMDb))
William Blake, the source of the title quote, was onto something about excess. But sometimes, I just don’t get it. My hotel room this week in the Bay Area was not exactly three star, yet it had a phone by the bed, one on the desk four feet away, and finally one in the bathroom next to the John. Has anyone ever used the corded phone in a hotel bathroom? Maybe Julia Roberts in that movie with the Johns?
When I think of excess, I think of the communications nerve center we had when I was a kid. My brother and I tore up the shaggy orange carpet in the hallway and ran phone and tv cables from our parent’s master into our shared room. Our walls and ceiling were covered with hockey posters. Wayne Gretzky, and his amazing hockey hair, watched over us. We were eight years old with cable tv, internet, and long distance. Those were happy times, with excess that lead to our miniature palace of wisdom.
We watched Jay Leno’s monologue before bed and called Pirate Radio to request Gun’s and Roses songs. We posted hockey questions on EarthLink bulletin boards before the widespread use of e-mail and websites. It was excessive, and we knew it even then.
Sometimes, I guess, it is nice to have a few things we don’t really need – like a phone in a hotel bathroom. Next time around, I may just make a call for good times’ sake. Some folks do quite a bit of thinking in the loo, and on the opposite end of that line just might be the wisdom I never knew I had: skip the room service all together and never look back.
Categories: Creative Writing, I Remember When, Life, Quotes, Rambling, Random, Sleep
eternal Domnation 
Awe. The cell phone. And wait, you had internet back then? Did I know what it was. Great post.
Sounds like a classy place.