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"To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly."

Samuel Johnson, English author, 1709-1784

My separation from my Blackberry was one Cold Turkey day in October of 2006. I didn't have much time to mourn the loss, and it didn't take me any longer to determine that I wasn't going to replace it. I didn't need it enough to justify paying for it myself. And, I had permitted it to interrupt too many family dinners over the years to feel good about inviting the temptation right back in after it had been so summarily ushered out.

During ensuing days, I became increasingly conscious of bad public electronic device usage by people who, in all likelihood, thought they exhibited decorum and professionalism of the highest order. I didn't want any part of it. I don't want any part of it now.

I possessed a Blackberry for enough years to develop the signature cramped thumbs and unshakeable, strong inner voice that life -- at least, business life -- was no longer possible without the wonderful black box that brought e-mail and internet access to me 24/7. Everywhere I traveled.

Except, of course, any place I traveled that lacked the necessary radio signal reception to conduct the transactions. The seemingly innocent little box also didn't work inside any buildings with solid block outside walls or lots of triple-paned glass (except right by the windows). So, I had a fairly good sense of how things came and went from the box, and I knew when I didn't have a signal because it had the one-to-five bars like we have on our cell phones.

I didn't give it that much thought then, and I haven't given it that much thought since. Until I read so much about how President Obama was insisting that he had to keep his Blackberry. The whole debate seemed to center around concerns for secure messaging, content, confidentiality, etc. And, certainly, those topics would be of supreme concern for someone in that position. I figured that he would need to change his behavior about subject matter and who was on the receiving end of his messages. And, I assumed that he can do that.

Today's reports say that, not only will he have an extremely secure device, he will modulate his use of it to casual communication among staffers and the like. The time has come and gone to argue that he should adjust to his new office and kick this addiction. That, surely, the most powerful nation on the planet can offer a suitable alternative to his insistence that he keep this appliance and, thereby, mitigate all the mounting concerns.

I don't know if that will prove to be true. But, I'm worried about something completely unrelated to that. I've even surfed the net to learn what I can about my concern.

Which is, of course, the radio signal itself. Clearly, I'm no scientist. But, my little pea brain keeps telling me that a radio signal-controlled form of communication on something as now-simple as a Blackberry is nothing more than a homing device. To track his every move.

I've read the arguments that his schedule and travel is a matter of public record. If someone really wants to find him, they can do it, blah, blah, blah. I'm hoping that someone with a couple of Ph.Ds in Blackberry has already satisfied the question that keeps running a loop through my head.

That is, if someone wants to target him personally in the nuclear age, can there be a better way to do it than to lock onto the signal emanating from the little black box hanging from his belt clip?

Please. Say it ain't so.