The A-Juan Clock, or Anti-isolationism

Those of you who are regular readers of aMMusing know by now that Halifax got hit last night by Hurricane Juan. Being the internet junkie that I am, I was well-prepared for the event and sending lots of sympathy to my friends in the city that feels most like home to me (my having lived in Halifax for 10 of the last 12 years). I went to bed last night expecting to hear about the sound and the fury of Juan (or, I thought, maybe that the storm was not so bad after all) over e-mail or via Canadian websites.

My mother had different ideas. Not having ever used a computer in her life, she was convinced that I would not get any news about Juan now that I'm living in that hinterland called New Jersey. So before 6:30 this morning, my phone rang. Between the time of the first ring and the time I said hello (maybe 5 seconds), I was already convinced that someone (hell, maybe more than one person) was sick or dead. This is what Newfoundlanders do in crisis: they call you at whatever hour of day or night the crisis strikes.

The "crisis" in this case was not really Hurricane Juan itself, I don't think. If so, she would have called last night to tell me about this. No, the crisis really was more of national proportions: my mother worried that American news channels would not give me news she thought essential to me.

I have a theory that Newfoundlanders, being islanders, constantly fear isolation. And the best evidence against isolation is connection, in one form or another, to the events happening in the world. So we (at least in my family, but I think in others as well) are big telephone people. Most Newfoundlanders in small communities have cable television, where it's available. And I don't know anyone who doesn't have "the plan" (some version of an unlimited long distance calling package). So my mother, in spite of her knowledge that I am an internet junkie, assumed that I "wouldn't hear much about the Hurricane down [here]." This is more because she could not imagine that I would have any means to hear about it except American television and newspapers. In short, it didn't occur to her in "the crisis" to think of something as far outside her own experience as the internet as a possible source of information for me.

Aside from there being an obvious and "virtual" generation gap here between my mother and me, there's also an equally obvious effort to close any gaps in distance between us that might, in turn, create gaps in knowledge. As long as Newfoundlanders are part of Canada, telecommunications will thrive, at least in Newfoundland. And as long as my mother has a phone, I guess I should just get used to her being my occasion a-Juan clock.