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Friday, December 26, 2014

Long distance family



Like many Americans, our extended family stretches from coast to coast. It's amazing that any of us mange to get together for the holidays.

Thanks to the miracle of modern high speed communication we can keep in touch. Skype lets us see each other face to face.

It's surprising that so many people still send actual physical Christmas cards. They must have meant so much more back in the day when long distance communication meant writing letters. It is reassuring that the Postal Service still exists, even if it's not the only game in town anymore.

We take our modern travel and communication for granted. If they were suddenly cut off the world would become a much bigger place once more. Our families would be distant, not just in miles, but in time. A half day's airplane flight equals many days of foot travel. Letters take time to get to their destination. In the past, by the time a letter arrived the letter was old news.

Someone would get a letter that “grandma's feeling poorly.” By the time the letter got to its destination grandma died and was buried. Today someone could get a phone call or e-mail, book a flight and be by her side as she passed.

That sad thing is that even with so many fast ways of keeping in touch, so many families drift apart.

-Sixbears

12 comments:

  1. Life is just too fast for many, myself for one. I try and make sure I slow everything down. I'm in no hurry to get to the end of anything, especially life. But most people don't have time for it...

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  2. I sent out a few cards this year, but then I do most years. I think there's something to be said for a physical object in the hand from someone who cares about you.

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    1. It seems to mean even more now that it's so easy to send something electronically.

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  3. Another Hanukkah and Christmas has come and gone and we live about 10 miles from the neartest sibling my husbands sibling we never ever hear from them..It has always been that way, they are not close and to tell the truth NEVER HAVE BEEN..Since my husbands mother died 14 years ago that was it, except for his baby brother who lost his mate of over 25 years to MD and we helped him heal, ptsd finally got it after 30 years of trying to get one damn thing from the VA and boom shakalala he got 3 months in arrears and now has had 8 years of monthly checks plus he does work..the nation has truly screwed most veterans of the Vietnam era shameful..We call and try to see him, but now he has met another lady to spend time with we are happy, our only is in NYC and we only see her when she comes this way for her work in the film industry which is many times on the west coast, so that is our holidays, we do have to furr babies and one we feed day and night taking to a no kill shelter tomorrow, we dubbed her Ginger she is an organ tabby and I shelter her at night in a warm room and make sure she is warm and dry and full of cat and kitty food and treats, so that is our holiday celebration..Even when my hubs Mom was alive they were not close he is the oldest of 9 kids and his dad was never around all the kids fled from their Mom's by the time they were 18 because she did not parent, not every person who has a Mom had a Mom who actually parented their kids, no she did not..ciao!

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    1. It's rough when family doesn't know how to be a family. It does make us appreciate those who do get it.

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  4. The cat is an orange tabby, and we have 2 other cats..our only child is not married and just turned 37, many women who are educated with good jobs never marry, she gets to travel, does well in life and is happy, they pay the company she works for - for her to visit her parents often, yeah...We are happy, we don't get the big bs over the holidays, we like to think each day is a holiday to love and care about other human beings, I am from a huge family my Mom died young and it devastated my family, I never see my siblings they don't live anywhere near me and I have no idea how they live many years separate our ages, after she passed away that was it and I was young, not every family is a norman Rockwell painting family, just the contrary, many problems and many are estranged forever, my friends are closer to me than any blood relative and my hubs the same way, we meet at the beach and enjoy each other companies and to tell the truth just cause one is born into a family doesn't mean one is close it isn't for me and not for my hubs of over 40 years, one gets to pick one's friends not one's family......ciao!

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    1. Good friends can be the family we choose instead of the one chance provided.

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  5. yes distance seams to matter with relations all over the place; some even up to a 100 light years away. never see any of them unless they need a bailout or a place to hide...


    but they all want their cards and prezzies....


    sheesh..

    Wildflower

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  6. I have a lot of wonderful relatives. but they have scattered all over. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania way back when, we all got together quite often and almost always saw my grandparents on weekends.

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