Take it for granted

Yesterday morning, I picked up the phone and called an aunt who lives halfway around the world. We chatted for about 15 minutes – the call is going to cost me less than the cup of coffee I sipped while we spoke.

In the course of our conversation I found out something new about my aunt. She had travelled between Canada and Europe by ship 60 years ago – aboard the Empress of Canada and Empress of Scotland, 2 members of the fleet of ocean liners operated by Canadian Pacific. She went off for some travel after she finished school, before she got married.

The conversation made me think about my kids travelling. They fly and I can track their flight’s location on-line. We generally make sure that the kids have a cell phone that allows us to stay in touch and we can see their photos nearly instantly.

In my aunt’s day, a 3 minute call between Europe and Canada was a luxury reserved for urgent news. To this day, we start our calls with an announcement that everyone is allright – and no special lifecycle announcements. I can call just to say hi.

I don’t take any of this for granted.

Some people ask whether we are too connected, are we “on” too much? They suggest a nostalgic look back in time and tell us that our parents did just fine without all of this technology.

I don’t think that ‘just fine’ is good enough. Maybe our parents did ‘just fine’. But we are doing better than that. We can call around the world for a lower price than calling from Toronto to Waterloo just 20 years ago. In real, not adjusted, dollars. We can stay in touch when travelling. We can share our experiences easier – so that it doesn’t come as a surprise to our nieces and nephews that their aunt or uncle was a globe-trotter. And we can respond faster to emergencies.

Our parents generation may have managed just fine with letters and airmail, but we are managing even better with our current portfolio of communications capabilities. 

I won’t take it for granted.