By Allison Adams 11-13-11 / Submitted to The Greeneville Sun on 11-14-11
“Happy Tuesday, honey!”
“happy 2sday mom”
“What’s up?”
“head n 2 class”
“Great! How’s the weather?”
“windy”
“Its lovely at home. I miss you.”
“miss u 2”
“Let me tell you a story.”
“no time”
“It’s a short story. Once upon a time, in a quaint, small town, there was a prematurely gray-haired momma.”
“mom”
“She was married to a handsome, hard-working daddy-bird, and they lived in an empty nest.”
“r u really gonna do this now”
“Yes, I am.”
“o boy”
“Anyway – their last baby bird had recently left the nest for college, far, far away.”
“did they let him take a car”
“No.”
“i can relate”
“They missed their baby bird very much, but they pledged to give him some space so he could spread his wings.”
“dfine space”
“I mean they didn’t constantly call their baby bird on his cell phone, or pester him with trivial text or email messages.”
“dfine trivial”
“They refrained from initiating contact with him unless they needed to pass along important info.”
“dfine important”
“They sent occasional emails or txt messages about life altering details.”
“we had lasagna for supper is NOT life altering dtail”
“They really tried.”
“neither is – i found ur missing shoestring under ur bed”
“The momma bird had a harder time with this arrangement than the daddy bird.”
“u got that rite”
“After a while, the momma bird began to crave communication from her baby bird.”
“so she stepped up the txting”
“Yes, she did. And she coveted any response she received from her baby bird, no matter how brief the reply.”
“baby bird is vry vry busy”
“The momma bird knew her little bird was very, very, busy, but it was hard for her to think he was too busy to share his life with her.”
“calculus & german r killing baby bird”
“There was no depth to their conversations. Their contact became nothing but a series of short messages.”
“txt msgs r supposed 2 b short”
“She knows that.”
“then why is she txting complete sentences”
“She can’t help herself.”
“she needs 2 get wit da program”
“Anyway, momma and daddy bird scheduled weekly Skype calls with their baby bird. That way they could converse, and see his sweet face, and pretend they were sitting across the table from him.”
“skype is good”
“Not really. The connection was horrible and the Skype sessions were more frustrating than fulfilling.”
“2 bad”
“So the momma bird began to make notes.”
“huh”
“She began to make notes about things she wanted to talk to her baby bird about so she would remember to include those things when the day came that they could have a REAL conversation.”
“ur joking”
“No joke. You see - text messaging and emails are NOT substitutes for face-time.”
“i no”
“The momma bird started to count the days until her little bird would come back to the nest for a visit.”
“r u serious”
“Eleven. She realized that while there are benefits to text messages and email, there is no greater treasure than good, old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation.”
“my battry is dying rap it up”
“Ok. So, the momma bird is patiently waiting for the day when she can perch next to her baby bird, and they can tweet about the things happening in their lives.”
“wait - r u on twitter”
“No, son. Pay attention. This is a story about birds.”
“o right”
“Wait. If I was on Twitter, would you follow me?”
“no”
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