“A friend is a gift you give yourself.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)

After a few months of writing this blog and now trying out Facebook, I am struck by the amount of friends I have always had. Facebook has allowed me to connect with people I haven’t seen or heard from in years and amazingly enough they seem genuinely glad to hear from me.  I have always been a bit of a loner when it comes to socializing. I’m not a big talker, I don’t drink for fun and I’m just not that great with a crowd of strangers.  I can write for hours but talking is a struggle for me.  To have people actually respond to my friend requests is nothing short of astonishing. Thank you all.

When I think back on all my closest friends, I realize just how important friends are in the grand scheme of things.  At least half of my most memorable experiences in life happened because I was with a friend and we were inspiring each other to take risks. I’m sure I would have never gotten into as much trouble if it hadn’t been for my friends.  Of course those near death experiiences make survival stories much more interesting. Those are memories that will be with me till I die and I will gladly retell those stories forever.  Not in this blog of course, they’re not really suitable for public admissions of guilt.

The other part of reconnecting with friends, that is even more amazing, are the girls I grew up with.  Women love Facebook.  My track record with girls is nothing to brag about and to have girls I knew in high school agree to my friend requests is beyond explanation. I don’t deserve any of this and yet they make it seem like I never used my squirt gun on them or forgot to call them back or broke up with them for no apparent reason. Maybe they just forgot my misdeeds and prefer to think of me in a more positive, if not accurate, light. I wasn’t really mean just garden variety, teenage boy, clueless when it came to girls.

My guess is that Facebook succeeds because people want and need friends desperately. In a world that moves so fast and so impersonally we all want to feel connected in a tangible way. Pictures and words on a screen don’t seem very tangible to me but it’s better than nothing.  It also eliminates the bad parts of relationships. You don’t have to respond right away or at all if you so choose. You can limit the amount of info that people actually receive about you and you never have to see them face to face.  Don’t we all look better online? Most of the people I have connected with online probably remember the skinny kid with long hair and blue eyes not the  overweight, graying and weathered visage that I currently possess.  Hey, I’m almost 56 what can I say?

I’m just really glad to know that people still care about me as much as I do about them. They are all part of my life and I owe them a lot. My life has been filled with moments of sheer joy caused by curiousity, stupidity and risk taking. I wouldn’t change a thing. If anybody out there finds this and thinks poorly of me still, then I apologize for whatever I did. I was young and foolish and I sincerely regret my actions. On the other hand if anybody out there finds this and wants to get back in touch, please do so. It would be great to have even more friends.  I promise I’ll try a little harder this time.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.