Communication Once Removed

It’s Sunday evening and Bill and I have just finished an early supper. The sun went down a long time ago. Today I learned that the sun doesn’t necessarily always rise in the east and set in the west. Here in the Arctic, on this 6^th day of December, the sun peaks over the horizon in the southwest and sets in the west. Its lazy attempt at an arc makes it hard to decipher if it’s actually a sunrise or a sunset.  Officially sunrise is at 1:00pm and sunset is 2:38. Do the math. Our early supper is understandable. There’s not much to each “Day” anymore.

Supper is done and I am waiting patiently for my SKYPE call from my family.

Our Sunday conversations have become the thing that I look forward to most each week. When I contemplated this leap of faith, I remember Michele telling me, “It’s not like it was when you were in the Marine Corps. You can email, call, SKYPE. We’ll be right here whenever you want to talk to us.”

She was right.

This Communication Once Removed has become our new normal. I usually read an email from my wife each morning before I step it off to school. Once my oatmeal is down and dress clothes on, I fire one back to her. And now that I’ve settled in to a bit more of a routine with my class, I’m able to write a quick message mid-day more often than not.

Email is how Michele and I stay in touch. No text messaging. No phone calls. No physical touch. No pillow talk. We work out life in the interwebs. I’ve become accustomed to pecking out a nightly email long after I know that she’s snoozing away back in Minnesota. I share with her the happenings of my day and answer any questions that might come up about raising kids together even though thousands of miles separate us. I want there to be a message from me when she wakes up.

It’s not just communication with Michele and the kids that sustains me. I like to hear from other family and friends. This crazy adventure to Alaska has showed me a few things about the holes in my social circles back home. But it has also showed me the strength that I’ve got in other relationships. Facebook messaging, emails, gift boxes and this blog have been just a few of the ways that I’ve stayed in contact…stayed in touch… got my story out there and kept some sense of normalcy in a world completely different than what I was used to.

I actually had to scold my old man. A “like” on a Facebook photo wasn’t enough for me. I need to hear from my Dadd. And since he’s heard that, we’ve chatted on SKYPE a few times and he’s sent out a few more emails. Heck, he even comments now and then on those Facebook photos he used to just “like”.

We’re not quite as far in to the future with person-to-person, long distance, communication as the holoforms and 3D teleporting of the old Sci-Fi flicks led us to believe. We’re getting there though. I couldn’t live without SKYPE right now.

2 weeks from now though – I won’t need it.

I’ll be holding my family in my arms.

Our communication will not be “once removed”.