I want an iPhone so bad it hurts. I recently spent some time alone with one and maaan, …. it was hot. The way it responds to my every touch. A gentle caress and I’m invited into worlds I never knew were available for me to explore. And they’re oh so exciting.

I can geographically explore anyplace in the word, I can listen to my iPod, I can look at YouTube video clips and I can surf the net. I mean really do those things. And it’s good in any position. If I turn it on it’s side it orients itself to me.

Ooooooooooohhhh.

I have to curb my enthusiasm though. You see I’m currently in a relationship with a Curve. And it’s sitting right next to me as I write this.

It’s a Blackberry Curve. You know the type. I’m sure you’ve seen them around. Attractive and functional, it takes care of my needs – email, contacts, calendar, handles all of my calls very well. But something has gone out of the relationship.

I’ve been through this so many times before you’d think I’d be past this by now, but I can’t seem to get over that initial heat. When they first come out they’re so sexy; everything you want, especially all of the stuff you already have with your current phone, but somehow this new model does it better. And then there’s the new things that my current model can’t do, and it’s slimmer smaller than the Jenny Craig posterchild I currently use for a phone.

Oh God! I just have to have the new model.

And then you get the new one, and the first initial synch is scary, but then it fully replaces your old model and it’s great. Everybody’s staring at the two of you and life is wonderful.

A few months go by and you notice that you don’t much care for the new things that it can do. Doesn’t work as well as the hype and so you go back to only using the old reliables that you used on your old model, except in a slimmer version.

After a few months, you start taking it for granted, and you start looking at other phones. You’re just looking, you’re not searching for a replacement or anything shallow like that, you’re just … well… looking.

What lesson does this have for my life I wonder? Well I’m still single so ….. hmmmm. Wonder what’s the lesson? 😉

No. I won’t go there.

Sticking to technology I do notice that this is a good exercise in practicing restraint. I really do not need the iPhone and it’s certainly not a practical time for me to make such a switch, especially given that I’ll have to change carriers, and pay a penalty to get out of my contract. A hassle(hof).

For me this crazy lust is here to teach me that feeding it isn’t the answer. Responding every time a craving shows up doesn’t make me happy. (See my post on 30 July 2008.) All it does is distract me from my path. It doesn’t mean I stop feeding my desires or that there’s something wrong with them. It just means that I should control them and not the other way around.

I’ll get an iPhone – just not now. With conscious practice the anticipation becomes part of the enjoyment.