Who's listening?

While waiting for my PET and CT scans at Emory recently, I was frustrated about wearing my mask. I was alone in a small examining room for two hours because the scanning machine was malfunctioning. They had already injected the radioactive substance for the PET scan, so I just had to wait for them to get the machine functioning properly.

I had to wear the mask because one of the technicians would come into the room every 10-15 minutes to check on me and give me a report. The problem with the mask was not being uncomfortable. The problem was that my iPhone would not recognize me with the mask on.

I was alternating between doing some work, working a word puzzle, reading the news and dozing off. Every time I dozed off or paused for a few minutes to think about something, I had to take the mask off to get back into my phone.

We are so wed to our devices! I am guilty. As you probably do also, I get a weekly report on my screen activity on my iPhone. I am stunned some weeks by the average number of hours I spend on the phone each day.

Over the weekend we were playing Mexican Train with Jason and family. It was fun and no one took out their devices during the long game, but the minute the game was over, and the dominoes were stored away, all of us checked our phones.

Allison gave me an Amazon Echo for my birthday. We still have an old stereo system that has a six CD changer and good speakers, but now I would rather ask Alexa to play some of my favorites.

Cheryl does not like Alexa. She declares that Alexa can hear our voices all the time. I know she does not like me keeping it plugged in all the time, and I have not seen her giving commands to Alexa—except “Alexa, stop” or “Alexa, pause.”

I did some research on the web—where you find everything!?—and it is true that Alexa and other devices are listening. However, they are not recording until they are awakened. So there are some risks.

This morning I was reading about David’s flight from Saul, and this verse grabbed my attention:

“In my distress I called to the Lord;
    I called out to my God.
From His temple He heard my voice” 2 Samuel 22:7

The original voice recognition, pupil recognition, and facial recognition was owned by the Lord God Almighty. God not only recognizes our voices, but He hears our voices as we communicate with Him. That brings peace to my heart and soul.

P.S. I am unplugging Alexa right now and only plugging it back in when I want my music.