Wednesday Rant with Andrea McCall

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Andrea.

Technology has created our “global village” and allowed us to be accessed just about anywhere, at anytime. With cell phones, satellite phones, e-mail, wireless everything, we are at other people's beck and call.

Why does it seem, though, that in some ways, we have grown farther apart?

My cousin in Regina just lost an uncle on her father’s side (the side not related to me). Their family was in Winnipeg so my cousin and her sister (also my cousin) drove my aunt to Winnipeg for the funeral. He was in his eighties, had multiple children who now have multiple children. In a sad way, she looked forward to doing the trip so that should could see family she hadn’t seen in awhile.

I asked her how it went and she told me it all went well. I asked how her cousins were (the boys were really, really cute when I was young) and she told me about their families and how everyone was doing. She commented on how everyone said they should keep in touch more and traded e-mail, etc, and then added something to the effect of, “but we will see if that will happen.”

It made me reminisce to my childhood when every second week my mother would receive a hand written letter from her sister in Regina. My mother would sit down and write a letter back to her, usually many pages long. They would let each other know what was happening with each other’s children, and extended families and I was excited to hear the news. Everyone in my family would read the letter. Sometimes I would receive my own special letter from my cousin and, in time, I would reply to hers (she was always way better at that than me and still is!). In fact, my mom would receive a few letters a month from different family members keeping us informed and “in the loop.” Keeping in touch was a big deal!

In the last ten years I have lost my dad and many, many aunts and uncles. I have to say that I haven't made an effort to keep up with most of my cousins and their lives. It does seem that it takes a funeral to bring us together. I have reconnected with some on crappy Facebook (see my May 28 rant).

It just seems that there are so many ways to keep in touch, but it just doesn't happen.  Is it because we take the accessibility for granted, or have we lost the importance of extended family and become so focussed on what is in front of us?

Thanks to my cousin, Glennis, I am still in touch with the Regina clan and what is happening there. I hope everyone has a great cousin like me!

Download Andrea's Rant here: Download Wed_Rant_22Sept2008.pdf