One of the weirdest things about being 50 in the year 2010 is that I spent most of my life in the analog world, in which phones had to be connected to the wall with a cord – and the notion of a “picture phone” or “video phone” was an exciting possibility far off in the future, just this side of a Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon movie. And yet, I’m young enough to be getting my feet wet in this amazing new world in which the whole planet seems inter-connected in a way never imagined just a few years ago, where your phone can go wherever you go, and that phone can be a combination computer and camera as well (as if the notion of a fully portable phone weren’t astonishing enough!)
My conversion to the 21st century was made fully complete the other night when I Skyped with Matt, Aidan, and Anna is faraway New Zealand. That’s right, I Skyped- and not only that, I Skyped on my own, while my much more technically savvy wife was upstairs, sound asleep. As someone who’s seriously stumped trying to operate an electric can opener, let alone anything more sophisticated than that, I must have succumbed to a case of temporary insanity. But I had just received an email from Randi saying that most of the family was home and on-line and able to Skype, and I decided to give it a try. Our goddaughter Anneka had been over to house a few nights ago to get us hooked up and to talk us through the basics, but we didn’t get around to actually calling anyone. But fortunately, the folks at Skype seem to have set up their program as though they wanted your 75- year-old Aunt Bertha to be able to use it. I mean, when they give you a button to click that says “Call” and another that says “Hang Up,” they are obviously bending over backwards to make this accessible and easy to people who didn’t graduate from MIT.
The night Anneka was here, we did a search to try and track down Randi’s Skype number. . . but our search only yielded about three dozen Randi Bergs scattered amidst Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. (Skype must be big over there.) But not our Randi Berg. But her email to me included the number to call – a cute number including the word Kiwi’s, in honor of where they’re living right now – and when I clicked on Call, it took about five seconds before I was suddenly looking at our beautiful niece Anna – joined a few seconds later by her equally beautiful sister Aidan – and eventually Matt as well. And it was a crystal clear picture and perfectly potent sound – as though they were calling from Rochester, MN rather than Darfield, New Zealand. Honestly, I couldn’t have been more amazed and impressed if I’d found myself talking with astronauts on the space station.
The conversation was not particularly earth-shattering – mostly just typical chit chat about how things were going, although it was great to hear about how things are going there- and at one point, they even carried their laptop around the house with the camera pointed outward so I could be taken in effect on a walking tour of where they’re living. . . and what was most exciting of all, in an odd sort of way, was when they pointed the camera towards their backyard, and I could see the clear blue skies which they were having there- while in Wisconsin it was a pitch black night. Something about seeing them on a sunny day just reinforced how far far far away they are- and what an amazing miracle it was to be talking with them via Skype.
We’ve had a couple of Skype conversations with my family in Philadelphia- my brother Steve, his partner Scott, and their son Henry- and in the chat we had this afternoon, Henry took the laptop over to where their beautiful new dog Kudo (a combination golden retriever and gold lab) was resting in his cage. And in the weirdest sort of way, that was a similarly exciting moment because it made me realize that Skype is this brand new way for us to let each other into our respective lives, to see each others houses, our newest acquisition from EBay, our new pet – or just each other. Will wonders never cease? Clearly, the answer to that question is an emphatic NO.
pictured above: Matt, Aidan and Anna, Skyping from their home in New Zealand, where they will be living until December. I’m hoping that when we next Skype I will be able to see my nephew Kaj and of course my sister Randi.