Dropped Calls

This past Friday, I was catching up with Sten—my west coast brother from the very same mother—on the phone. After about seven minutes of conversation, the call was dropped. Now, I’m not going to point fingers as to whose fault it was (AT&T or T-Mobile), but the bottom-line is someone’s network failed (T-Mobile’s). I sat there and waited for him to call me back. Nothing. After a few minutes I called him back and he immediately answered saying, “You know, someone really needs to come up with a convention as to whose responsibility it is to make the reconnection after a call is dropped.” And you know what? He’s right.

We began brainstorming.

Should it be the person who is responsible for the call being dropped? No. There may be some confusion as to whose fault it was.
Should it be the person who made the initial call? No. Again, there may be some confusion.
Should it be the oldest person? No. This may not be known.
So what did we decide?

It shall be he whose first name comes first in alphabetical order who is responsible for forging a new connection.

In our case, for example, it would have been Sten (since his name comes alphabetically before “Tobias”).

I encourage everyone who reads this message to embrace this protocol and disseminate it amongst your respective social circles. No longer will you struggle to reconnect with the people from whom you’ve been cut off. No longer will you try and call someone back while they are simultaneously trying to call you—casting both of you into an endless cycle of immediate voicemail greetings (not unlike when you’re trying to get into a locked car and you’re pulling the handle at the same time that the person in the car is hitting the power unlock switch).