An
Inkling
Last week one morning about 9:30 I got a FaceTime
call, apparently from my daughter, Dorothy. But when I answered, I saw two
year old Caroline instead. She said, “Hi Pop.” Even as she did the phone was in motion, and
I saw her face, then her tummy, then the ceiling, etc. Gratefully I’m not prone to motion sickness.
I had a hunch that Caroline had called me on her
own, and sure enough when I asked where mommy was, she told me she was in the other
room. So we had a nice little talk – about half of which I could
understand. It ended abruptly when she
hit the End Call button. It was great
fun. I had never had a call from a two year
old before!
I felt honored that she would want to call me, and
even more honored when I later learned how it happened. Her mom had let her play on the phone with a
couple of FaceTime apps – FaceTime with Elmo and FaceTime with Cookie
Monster. These apps make it look like
you’re conversing with Elmo or Cookie, complete with your own face in the
corner, etc. So for Caroline to pause
those conversations to find me – well that felt like a special honor.
I’ve always heard that a two year old moves seamlessly
between real and pretend worlds. Did she
recognize any difference between Elmo, Cookie, and me? Hmmm.
For that matter, a lot of us wonder about how real
our cyber encounters are. Maybe fifty-nine
year old Pop and two year old Caroline can be partners in sorting such things
out. That will surely be done best with
an in the flesh FaceTime.
But in between such moments, I’m happy to have a
FaceTime with a two year old!
Blessings,
Keith
