Wednesday evening run

During my run on Wednesday evening on a path through the woods, I passed an attractive 35-ish woman who had a cellphone to her ear as she walked along. Was she really talking with someone, or was it a ruse to thwart any would-be attackers?

I must admit that I got a bit angry with the woman. It amuses me when I see people who seem always on the phone, either driving in their cars or walking down the street. But here, in the woods, where it's peaceful and the flora is lush and where families of deer are sometimes up ahead on the path, is it really so important to be on the phone? I wanted to yell, "Fer crissakes, lady, look around and enjoy nature!"

But I simply gave her a smirk as I passed and then forgot about her in another minute.

Thinking about it now, however, and being a man, I could be being unfair to the woman. Maybe a public safety official would say that holding a cellphone to the ear is a wise thing to do in an isolated area like the woods. But I could argue that it would make the woman less focused on her surroundings and possibly more vulnerable to attack.

Plus, would it really sidetrack an attacker, knowing that he has the isolation going for him, regardless of whether or not the woman were linked to the outside world by phone? A few years ago on the path where I run, a man suffered a heart attack. A runner came by and found the man lying on the ground, and he dialed 9-1-1. When asked where he was in the woods, the runner could not give an exact location, but only that he was between two main streets, which were miles apart. By the time the ambulance got there, the stricken man had died.

In my mind, if the women were attacked, she might be able to say to the person on the other end of the line, "Help! I'm being attacked! I'm in the woods!" And that would be about it. By then, she'd be too busy fighting for her life or the attacker would have gotten the phone away from her.

As I type this, though, I am starting to realize that having the cellphone visible is probably a good thing. Even if successful in his attack, the attacker would have to think that he's on the clock, that there is a chance that police would have been called and that they'd be racing to the woods. And he wouldn't know which direction they'd be coming from. Sure, the police would probably not have an exact location, but the attacker would know that his chances of being caught had just gone up.

Okay, I apologize to the lady. Still, I hope she realizes that if she is walking through the woods, she should take time to look around and enjoy the surroundings.