Yesterday, I tried writing a blog post from my phone. It is not an easy task pecking out one letter at a time (aka OLAT). My short little fingers speed across the virtual keyboard and seem to hit the wrong letter about every other peck. When I write an e-mail my smart phone often guesses what I’m trying to say and substitutes the correct word. But sometimes the guesses are goofy, even embarrassing. It will interpret my hasty, bad spelling of “people” as “proletariat” or “doing” as “dung.” Proofreading is essential. When I first became a smart phone owner, I sent out a lot of screwball messages.

Slowing down and single tasking is the only way I can produce a coherent piece of communication. My usual doing twelve things at a time is my idea of fun, so OLAT is tedious and frustrating. It’s not true for all things and all times, but in general, One Thing at A Time is pretty good advice for living much of my life: One Day at a Time, One Lollipop at a Time, One Breath at a Time, One Spouse at a Time… Not so good for combing hairs or eating cornflakes, however.