Technological Magic

Okay, this blog idea is time consuming, and even during the month of February while we were absolutely snowed in, life remained remarkably busy, as I kept writing my feature articles for the Holland Sentinel and neglecting my blog. Blogging takes self discipline, something I always need to work on. It should have been at the top of my New Year's resolution list, but I neglected that list too. Bad girl!

We have developed a new favorite pastime during the blog hiatus, though. It’s called Skyping with grandchildren, and it makes even the darkest day brighten up and smile. If you haven’t tried this incredible technological development, it is definitely easy to master, and not to be missed. You simply dial up other Skype members, and they open their computers (you both must have an operative web camera,) and BINGO − there they are to chat with you. With grandchildren this is a magical gift, because your grandchildren can see you, and they begin to recognize you and do adorable things like clap their hands, or smile widely, or enunciate syllables like Na-Na (our grandchildren are mostly babies.) It’s irresistible for everyone involved!

The other more subtle feature of these exchanges is that you get to see your darlings in their own familiar surroundings, doing familiar things like eating breakfast (because we have a 3 hour time zone difference with some of the babies,) and facing life’s little trials like runny noses and sleepiness. You also get to share with your own dear children their everyday thoughts, hopes, dreams and challenges as they grow into parenthood. It is an amazingly successful means of communicating in a natural, unscripted way.

There are so many available means to communicate now that it often seems we are all victims of information overload. The open and seemingly unlimited access allows unsolicited E-mails, phone messages on land lines and cell phones, text messages, unsolicited faxes, and even U-Tube exposures of a wide range of intimacies about people we hardly know or do not know at all. It can be overwhelming. Skyping with grandchildren is a refreshing antidote to all of this, and makes the wonder of technology outweigh the nuisance and seem worth it after all.