I just got a new mobile phone and since I was switching from Nokia (interesting spelling suggestion right) to Motorola and I couldn’t get the import tool to import my list of contacts I had to painstakingly go through all my numbers one by one and copy them to their new home.

It was a strange and in many ways sad experience. I’ve known a lot of people over the last 10 years or so of mobile phone ownership. Quite a few I’m still in regular contact with but a surprising number of them I’ve not spoken to in over 2 years. A few even longer. And there were a couple who I couldn’t even remember at all.

It’s sad because if you’ve made it into my contacts list then it means you mattered to me when I added you. I only save the numbers of people I want to call again. To see the name of former close friends and wonder what they’re doing now means I didn’t keep in touch like I wanted to. To see the name of someone I can’t even remember feels like a failure. And no, before you suggest it I’m not going to call them!

You see time’s short and life’s short. You can’t keep in contact with everybody. Your life and their lives move on and you can only look back with fondness at the time you shared. There’s no sense looking back with regrets. But if it’s all the same I’m a sentimental old fool so I’ll keep all the numbers. Even if I never dial them again, at least they’re there as a memento of times past.