2008-04-23
4/23/08
Do you ever wonder where or why people go when they just disappear from your life? I'm not talking about death. I'm talking about friends who suddenly stop returning calls and emails (I''ve been guilty of this more than once.) I'm talking about bloggers who just stop writing. No explanation, no goodbye...they just leave their last entry there as a teaser that maybe they'll be back soon. Or the bloggers that simply delete their blogs without a goodbye, kiss my butt, nothing.
Yesterday I went back through my notes, looking for one in particular. So many of the people who left notes, people I considered my friends...gone. Most of them without any reason given. They simply stopped writing.
When I think about the people I've met through Diaryland...it blows my mind. I can't wait to go online in the morning and see what everyone's been up to. When something particularly great or bad happens to me...I share it here. I can remember as a child, it was a BIG DEAL to make long distance phone calls to out of state family and friends. Now, we all correspond via the internet. With literal strangers who are virtual friends. Amazing.
That's one of the reasons I decided to finally post a photo of myself. I love it when others share photos of themselves. When I read their diaries, I can picture them in my mind. They seem so much more real.
I've shared thoughts, feelings and secrets here that I wouldn't even consider sharing with people in my "real life." With very few exceptions, I've found my internet friends to be non-judgemental and supportive. Much more non-judgemental and supportive that the people I meet in the "real world."
Is that why we come here? Has the
"real world" become so cold and scary that we turn to our online friends for the comfort and support we can't find anywhere else?
Many of us have family that we don't get along with. After Jeff died, we continued to get so many phone calls for him from solicitors, that we changed and unlisted our phone number, rather than having to explain over and over that he was gone. I gave our new number to ONE person in my family. My brother. It's been almost two years and I haven't received so much as a postcard from the rest of my family asking what's up. To be brutally honest...it's a relief not to have to hear from them. Not to have to deal with their unkind, toxic words.
I consider many of my online friends to be my family. I care about them. When they don't update for awhile, I worry about them. When I know they're going through hard times, I wish them well. When they share good news, I rejoice for them. When they write about the funny things that happen in their life...I laugh with them.
Thank you all. For being my friend. For being my family.