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Donkees

(33,448 posts)
13. The operator in the song symbolizes the inspiration behind modern day "Wind Telephones"
Mon Jan 19, 2026, 05:09 AM
9 hrs ago

The operator symbolizes the 'unconnected' phone ...

At its simplest, a wind phone is a rotary or push-button phone located in a secluded spot in nature, usually within a booth-type structure and often next to a chair or bench. The phone line is disconnected.

People use the wind phone to “call” and have a one-way conversation with deceased loved ones. Here they can say the things left unsaid. Wind phones offer a setting for the person to tell the story of their grief, to reminiscence and to continue to connect to the person who is gone. For many, it is a deeply moving, life-affirming experience.

The wind phone began in Japan in 2010, when Itaru Sasaki, a garden designer, built a phone booth in his yard so he could “talk” with a deceased relative. Months later, the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami hit; in a matter of minutes, more than 20,000 people died.

Sasaki opened the phone booth to his neighbors, who urgently needed a place to express their grief. Word spread, and soon people came on pilgrimage from around Japan to speak through the “phone of the wind” to those they loved.

Since then, wind phones have spread throughout the world.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/what-are-wind-phones-and-how-do-they-help-with-grief-180985113/

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