The last article I submitted to SearchWarp was about my daughter going to spend some time with my sister in Florida for the summer and a band named, Betty's Not a Vitamin.
It seems SearchWarp has a broad range of readers or is easily indexed by the search engines because the day the article was published I got an email from one of the members of the band, how cool is that?
I quickly scanned my article for any insults I may have made but all seemed in good taste so I opened the email.
The band could not have been more pleased that I had written a story about them and as I waited for them to offer to fly me down to join my daughter in Florida and go backstage to meet them, I could not help but be overwhelmed at how far technology had come and how quickly we can connect with the world.
Obviously my article did not warrant the band ponying up $635 for a plane ticket but they did send me a free CD.
My daughter called me from the concert and we listened to one of their songs together and cried like a bunch of babies.
I may not have been there physically but my heart was right there beside her and we bonded on a level I had never experienced before.
Chills went up and down my spine as we listened to the music and I could hear my daughter breathing quietly some 1200 miles away.
It was though I could reach out and touch her on a plane of existence I had never even been aware of until now. Does distance make the heart grow fonder? It certainly makes you realize how connected you are to those you love, and just how much they mean to you.
I'm not sure I could have shared this experience only a few short years ago, before SearchWarp, before the World Wide Web. I have never been a fan of technology, wishing desperately for simpler days and that my children could experience the world I grew up in.
No cell phones or video games. No cable television or personal computers. Your imagination kept you company and your body got more than enough exercise playing simple games out in the yard with neighborhood friends.
But it was such a small world we lived in. So much was unknown outside our isolated shell. The nightly news and history class was our view of what the world was like...so innocent...so trusting that we lived in a peaceful beautiful place, ruled by loving and just parents.
Give and take I guess. My kids know the world is dangerous, but they also know just how big and multifaceted it is as well. They have friends near and far and just about anything they could ever want to know is right at their fingertips.
Danger lurks around every corner in both the physical and virtual world these days so our parental duties to protect our children have expanded beyond the white picket fence and manicured lawns and into a cyber world few of us really understand.
So, if you could choose, how would you have it, past or present?
I know it would be difficult for me to give up the moment I just recently shared with my precious baby girl, a moment that never would have happened without the Internet, without SearchWarp.
I know my stories, as silly as they may seem, would see only the inside of the dusty notebooks they were written in if the technology did not exist to send my message around the world at the push of a button.
I guess I'm voting for the present but I really wish they would hurry up with teleportation. Now with the price of gas I'm sure it is just around the corner. I sure hope so because I promised my daughter that next year we would go see Betty's Not a Vitamin together, in Florida, which of course I could not possibly afford. Once again my mouth has written a check it cannot cash.
Oh, and the CD was really awesome. Great sound these guys have and anyone clever enough to come up with a name for their band based on a trivia question you would find in the eighties edition of Trivial Pursuit is A Okay in my book, even if they didn't offer to buy me a plane ticket!
I just love your writing, Myla. I hope you never stop writing. This had your usual sharp humor, but also so much tenderness I almost cried. Of course, had I cried, I could not have finished this excellent article, so good thing I'm so disciplined. huh?
You were the only one who commented on the article so I guess you are my biggest fan (or only fan) so I apprecite the effort you made to cry. I try to spark emotion when I write and if i almost did that then well hey, I'm happy! lol
Take care, and thankyou so much for taking the time to comment, i love hearing from you.
» left by April Lorier from not signed in (122 days 6 hours ago.)
Don't let comments be your guide to judging your writing! I just had an article that was read by around 800 people and I got TWO comments! April, not signed in.
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