For those of us whose lives are spent living far from family, the unconditional love and acceptance welcoming us back into the fold is a rare event. Last weekend I flew to Minneapolis, the “seat” of the maternal family enclave, to attend the wedding of my second cousin. Five minutes after arriving, I realized the advantage of social media. We all knew one another – not just the children I had never met, but their boyfriends and girlfriends as well. Our reminisces were heart-warming stories of mutual relatives no longer with us and what our futures held, because we had already seen posts about the newest acquisitions in the garage, the home rehab, and the latest vacation trip.
I’m often lonely up here in New York. My best friends are in Virginia and Florida, my dance friends live in St. Louis, Texas and Oklahoma, and the few cousins on my dad’s side are all far west of the Mississippi. There is little time or opportunity for long letters or phones calls, but my social media interaction fills the void perfectly and when the once in a blue moon visit takes place – we aren’t strangers!
The youngest generation is supposedly shunning FaceBook, but latest figures show there are still 1.44 BILLION daily users, or 71% of the population, keeping in touch with siblings, children, parents, grandparents, and friends of all types. It is hard to imagine a time when loved ones set sail across the sea for the new world, or joined a wagon train headed West – knowing they would never again see, or talk to, those they left behind.