Thanksgiving Telephone

Today I am thankful for our telecommunications network. Growing up, it would take 3 or 4 tries to get a circuit off the island for a call to loved ones who expected a call on a holiday. In the holiday celebration background was Mom or Dad repeatedly dialing until finally triumphantly telling us to stop what we were doing and get on the phone.

Now, even our earthquake a few years back did not shut down communication. There was no bandwidth for calls, but texts got through, and we knew our lovers and friends were ok within a half hour.

I’m also grateful because texting shorthand and autocorrect errors have opened up new breathing room for those of us with language-related disabilities. My misspellings are not as mercilessly mocked as they were in the early days of the Internet. Phones have made real what we should have always known; an idea can be valid even they don’t get through the gate of a learned language.