Extreme nerves may seem like the most universally understandable defence
...after all, who doesn’t imagine themselves likely to come across as a jabbering imbecile under the buckling pressure of a face-to-face proposal? Realistically, though, blind panic is probably the least acceptable excuse going: the recipient of your overtures could easily be forgiven for rejecting an applicant who favours conducting serious relationship business from behind an emotional dressing screen.
In this scenario, it’s impossible to claim that the phone is playing a vital role, which it must be if you’re even considering using it. No, all it’s really doing is providing the caller with a flimsy mask behind which they forlornly hope their mantling vulnerability might somehow be partially concealed. It won’t. So if your only excuse is a terminal lack of minerals, you probably shouldn’t even be bothering.
Equally, the telephone mustn’t be viewed as a modern enabler of the historically unfeasible ‘emergency’ proposal.
Anyone attempting to push a proposal through a barely-ajar window of question-popping opportunity should, with a fewhighlyspecific exceptions, be hearing some pretty shrill alarm bells already. This is of course particularly true if said window is closing due to your own precarious situation, as opposed to that of your significant other.
Once again, there will be clear-cut and specific exceptions to this rule. But, broadly speaking, while a proposal shrieked down a stuttering mobile as you cling one-handed to the remains of a collapsing Amazonian rope bridge may /seem/ quite the blockbuster gesture in the heat of the moment – to the incurable romantic with serious prioritisation issues, at any rate – in reality, nobody on the other end is likely to appreciate being put through that sort of emotional mangle. Besides, whatever answer you get will inevitably be heavily skewed by the circumstances, and therefore somewhat compromised in value.
