How private should private be?

Well, here I am blogging on the back of an envelope. How can that be you ask? Well, the truth is that I will of course type it in later, but as I am at work today I am just snatching a moment here and there to write down thoughts.

Today though I have a question for you readers, and that is: how private do you think should private be? Should there be any privacy in marriage for instance, and if so, how much is reasonable?

Of course, there is a story behind this, because this morning, my dear hubby took a phonecall for me while I was, in the bathroom. The call was on my mobile, and so I got slightly concerned when I heard him, still talking to the person on the other end of the line, walking towards me. All of a sudden he walked in and handed me the phone. As I was at the time sitting in a place where I would rather not take phonecalls (work ones especially!) I gesticulated wildly to TAKE A MESSAGE!! He did take the hint and managed quite successfully, after a little prompt, to deal with the matter himself. Naturally it did then prompt a big conversation between myself, my husband and my eldest daughter. Both of the other two saw no problem at all in talking to people while, shall we say "indisposed". Now call me prudish if you wish, but surely there are times when there is a need to be completely on ones own is there not? Or tell me, do you all take calls while sitting on the loo? Could it be that I call you one day and find that I am speaking to you in the bathroom? And if that is the case, where do you put the phone while you wash your hands? No wonder my eldest daughter gets through so many mobile phones. The last one was definitely written off to water damage. Now I'm beginning to understand. There must be phones sitting on washbasins around the County and soap bars in the pockets of my daughter's coats.

Phones are a complicated part of life though aren't they? And there is so much choice involved now. Do I answer the call? Can I see who's calling? , which (home, business , mobile) phone is ringing. And most of all - am I engaged, or am I here?

I have one friend who NEVER answers the phone. To say that I find that irritating would be an understatement - but then there are days when I am tied up on one phone and another one rings - giving me a complicated set of choices. Do I ring off? Do I answer the other phone and keep my current call dangling? Do I ignore the dulcet tones of the other caller, and let the caller that I am talking to think that I must be a very busy and important person as it rings in the background? The possibilities are endless.

Perhaps in my machine free society of the future we shall simply live near those that we want to know and that way we can talk to each other! Hey hasn't that been done before somewhere in history?

Who knows? That might just be the answer!