Social Networking

A couple of years ago, I wrote this thing that appeared in our local paper, The Indianapolis Star and it was all about how people (especially politicians) throw around the greeting, "Hello Friends."

I don't remember exactly what I wrote but I remember it had to do with the definition of friendship.

Enter social networking. I was a hold out to Facebook. I am still a hold out on Twitter. (Really, my day is not that interesting.) But, I am a marketing person and I am supposed to reasonably keep up with the times. So, I joined. And now I am addicted a little bit.

At first, I thought it was amazing that someone, anyone!, would want to friend me. Then I would catch myself in a lazy evening or at couple of stop lights, I checked Facebook. Now I have something like 200 friends and I promise you, I do not have 200 friends in real life. It's fun to see what's going on with high school & college friends, old business associates and cousins I don't see very often.

But sometimes I need to remind myself that this is not reality. Running over to a girlfriend's house is friendship. Planning a trip to the girlfriend who has been there since I was 5-years old is reality. Worrying about medical tests for a person I love is friendship.

Sometimes you get one of those prodding things: "You should be friends with XXX -- you have 18 friends in common." I clicked "Yes" a couple of times. Never heard back and you know what that means ... Ignore! Guess he forgot we were married for a couple of years.

Social networking is fun but I still know who my friends are.

A Road Trip

This weekend I drove to Memphis to visit one of my golden friends. Remember this saying:

Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.

We have been friends since kindergarten so that definitely qualifies.

She and her husband built a gorgeous new home a few years ago and I was privileged to check it out for myself. Descriptive words would not do it justice so I will not even try. The greatest compliment I can give her is that for all of its grandeur and opulence, it feels warm and inviting. It feels like a home.

The trip there (and of course, the trip home) allowed me 8 1/2 hours of alone time. Just me and my brain. It was a fine time for reflective thinking. I beat myself up a bit, made some decisions, walked down memory lane and made some plans. It was therapeutic and time well spent.

Plus it was a lot cheaper than paying a therapist for 17 hours.