cellphone

From my son Ian

I gave my son Ian a mobile phone. I know I know, microwave radiation and etc., but....Friday I waited and waited in front of the President Hotel for his schoolbus, and no Ian. Called his mother, we both freaked out for a while, she called the bus driver, he not on bus. After some freaking out, we established tentatively that he was still at school. I went out there in a taxi and shouted until he finally decided to emerge from whatever hole he had been occupying. With a phone, this could have been avoided. That is, provided that he had it on. Provided that he doesn't lose it.

Once we got it up and running, he proved remarkably deft at handling it. Parents say this all the time, but it should be no surprise. He was born into a world in which most things are operated by menu-driven software, from the television to his Nintendo. No one marvelled when we could operate the hot and cold water taps. It's just the shape of his world.

Anyway, I got it free from my phone company when I renewed my contract for 2009, so it's okay.

We spent some very good father/son hours fooling around with his phone this morning, sending photos to each other with bluetooth and discussing fine points of navigation through the operating system. Because it is a sony-ericsson like mine, we can share a lot of things. I was pleased that he wanted me to send him my red photo of buddha so that he, too could use it for wallpaper.
Togetherness in the 21st century.