Blessed be the beast -- at least in video

In a small way, I cheated today.

I gritted my teeth many times and resisted the urge to sign on to my e-mail, but I could not resist when my wife looked at HER e-mail and said that our daughter was asking for a video-instant message session.

My daughter, Gillian, recently moved to Dublin, Ireland. When they moved into a new apartment, they found that the Irish notion of "quick" installation of Internet service can take weeks. Today her cable modem was installed, however.

We both have Apple iSight cameras, so we were able to establish a direct video link this morning. There in somewhat fuzzy color was my beloved daughter and my impish grandson, Briton.

It was all I could do to keep from weeping with joy.

I'm not sure where this new trend in video messaging will go, but I think it may have much the same addictive quality as e-mail. Certainly it is almost a "necessity" for families divided by jobs, school and modern life.

Imagine what this will mean to my grandson. Briton is just 2 now, but will grow up thinking that Grandpa is just a mouse click away. He can't even speak in complete sentences, but he is already able to hit keys on the computer and to position himself in front of the camera for a conversation. By the time he is 20 like my students, he will have a stockpile of communications experiences very different from them. "Normal" takes on new meaning.

Meanwhile ... I find myself looking forward to the end of this experiment. But the insight I have gained is well worth the effort.