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Blushing Lamp

Reading about the blushing lamp I tried to remember any phone conversation that had made me blush –only one came to mind and it was in the mid 80s. What a long time ago ! I guess I am past the age of “blush” and can’t relate to it anymore.

I am familiar with a myriad of other emotions that a phone conversation can evoke – pain, longing, desire, anger, happiness and laughter are some I can readily think of. Hours after I get off the phone with my best friend I feel like I am floating on a million effervescent bubbles of delight. I have no idea how he does it. The blushing lamp would need to glow like a neon sign to approximate my mood.

When R returned to my life after a one year hiatus, my heart throbbed with a dull pain whenever we talked on the phone. In time that changed to longing and even happiness but a tiny kernel of pain remained - that was at the core of all other feelings – a metaphor for our short-lived marriage. A blushing lamp whose glow waxed, waned around a central black spot and sometimes turned completely dark would certainly reflect that state of being.

Humanizing technology to observe and record human emotions is certainly useful. It is like having someone to hold up a mirror to us when we would have no way knowing what we are undergoing emotionally - visual cues could serve as warnings to save us from destructive relationships.

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