Modern Solutions to Distance
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 10:31 AM
Yesterday, in honor of Veterans’ Day, I said some extra prayers for both my grandfathers, who served our country during World War II, and for my father, who did four years in the Coast Guard as a young man.
I also prayed for my brother, who qualifies as not-yet-a-vet, because he is currently serving in the Coast Guard. We’re very proud of him, and glad that he enjoys his work as an electronic technician. I’m also glad that he seems to relish the weather where he lives, although I think he’s crazy, because he is stationed in northern Minnesota. Brr.
(I know that a lot of people think Michigan is the Great White North, but we live in southern Michigan. The part of Minnesota where my brother lives is as far north as the northernmost parts of Michigan. The weather is much milder where we live.)
At any rate, the worst part about my brother’s being in the military is that - like most servicemen - he’s not close to home, and doesn’t get to visit his family very often.
My dad, who is a writer, apparently made it through his stint in the military by writing lots of letters. My brother did write letters from boot camp where it was his only option, but he’s not a writer like our father and (as I’m sure he would readily admit) his handwriting is atrocious. I shudder to think what would happen if we had to depend entirely on handwritten letters for communication from him.
Fortunately, this is the twenty-first century. Modern phone plans make it possible for us to have unlimited phone conversations for mere pennies. Email, though not as personal as handwritten letters, is instantaneous and always legible. My brother, who is a budding photographer, provides us with a visual narrative of his adventures through his Flickr account, and we email him pictures of our children in return. It’s a pretty good deal.
The neatest way we have of keeping in touch, though, is something that a decade ago I still had mentally relegated to the realms of science fiction: video chatting.
My brother and I both have laptops with built-in webcams and microphones, so if we’re online at the same time it takes just seconds to set up a connection and start having a conversation that is almost like being face-to-face. He gets to see his niece moving and talking, and can see how big she is getting. He even plays peek-a-boo with her!
I know that technology is a neutral quantity, valuable only as we use it for good, but I also know that even half a generation ago an uncle who lived a twelve-hour drive away would not get to regularly play peek-a-boo with his two-year-old niece. I think more peek-a-boo is always a good thing.
At least in this respect, hooray for the twenty-first century!
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