I miss Beth. I never met her, but I miss her. Beth is author of one of my favorite blogs, "Switched At Birth", and decided she needed to put the blog aside and concentrate on other areas of her life. Ya can't blame her for that.
After reading a comment she made on another site, I realized I missed her. A few times a week I'd pull up her blog and there she was, welcoming me to her home on Long Pine Preserve with that big smile of hers. Then suddenly she was gone.
This caused me to start thinking, why do we get so attached to people we have never met? Why is it that on-line friends become almost like family? I feel closer to all you on-line friends than I do those I physically see. I blogged about this once before, a long time ago, and my conclusion then was that at the keyboard, we can be ourselves. We don't have to put up a false front to try and impress someone we don't know, but then a funny thing happens, we've established a relationship. We cross our t's and dot our i's and suddenly we have a friend in Florida, Alaska, even Down Under.
We have even written about our friendships over at Ann's website. We decided that we're going to all meet on Gully's deck and have a beer or two and pound on our laptops. I do hope that one day that will happen in one form or another.
I don't know why this is such a phenom, but it is. Maybe the way to world peace is one on-line relationship at a time. So my friends, on-line and off, keep in touch. Keep writing and keep wowing me with your words, on-line for now, but one day face to face.
(I know this is almost the exact opposite of my last post, but the last post was mainly about a romantic relationship. This one is about friendship and finding them in a place where a person wasn't really looking for friends.)
10 comments:
What you expressed so eloquently is why I couldn't stay away.
Thanks, Walk.
p.s. I don't fully understand it either, but it's real. You, Gully, Shaddy, Kathleen, and several of my other blog buddies are real friends in a virtual world.
I for one am glad of your return.
Our friendships are indeed a splendid and unexpected result of our online lives.
I reckon the back deck chairs will have to be virtual then because I've had to put the real ones away for the coming winter, but don't let that stop you from joining me. I, too, often think of the online friends with whom we are no longer in contact--Aloma, Orlando, Ken, TNSJ, Sandra Dee, Norriceann, and all the rest, and it makes the ones I am in contact with all the more precious. Very nice writing, Walk, and so eloquently expressed.
I second what Walk said. We're all on the same page (or should I say screen?)!
Being the newbie in the group, it is hard for me to say anything other than I am glad you have managed to put up with me.
I used to play bridge over on POGO and developed a friendship with someone who had a terminal illness. When she passed on, her husband wrote me to let me know. I cried and grieved for days even though I had never met her personally. My cyberfriends are every bit as special as my physical ones--and I'm glad you're one of them!
Thank you, my cyberfriends, for your comments and your friendship. We may be amazed how we may have touched someone whom we never met even here in cyberspace. Keep in touch somehow, someway.
What a great post. I love coming to your site, it is funny, thoughtful and hey you think an awful lot like me! Sometimes I think most of us "normal" folks are really more alike then we know. Perhaps that is why we like to visit online. Or maybe it's because we don't go next door for coffee anymore and this is our way of being neighborly in modern times.
Linda, your comment about not going next door for coffee anymore is right on the mark. I guess that went away with the front porch.
On that we think alike, well, great minds and all that. I'm glad you enjoy it here. I too enjoy your blog.
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