or; ‘Like’… it’s more than just a button you push…
I am deeply moved by the many comments generated by my recent post entitled; My wife is never wrong.
There is no better feeling than to write words that people actually think about and talk about. That post ended up being deeper than it started off being. In truth, I was really just thinking out loud, if that is a term you can apply to typing up my thoughts.
So I have continued to ponder the notion of ‘friendship’, and I have learned a few things in the process… (I do that occasionally, but not too often… It makes my head hurt, and carrying on internal conversations can be problematic. Either I appear withdrawn and slightly crazy… because my eyes dart back and forth when I think really hard… or I forget not to have the conversation out loud, and then I look really crazy… sometimes I have to pretend I am talking to the dog)…
Here is what I learned from myself… and from your comments, I guess… whatever…
Friendship is an emotion, and we have no way to share these except with words.
Since written languages were first created,how many countless romances have been kindled, sight unseen, by the written word alone? In our time, how many lasting loves have begun as just words cast out into the lonesome void? How many times have you already loved someone, only to have a letter or song written by them tell you how they feel about you so clearly, so sweetly, that you found your love growing even stronger? How often have you poured out your heart onto a blank page to try to express how you really feel when the spoken word fails to say what your heart feels, though you talk far into the night?
Friendship is not complicated. It is the simplest thing in the world. You are friends with someone when you find yourself caring what they say and what they think. It is as simple as that, and as magical as that. You care.
By this simple definition, many of you are indeed my friends. You are just friends I haven’t met yet.
Now, just to make sure there is no confusion about which of you I consider to be my friends, I will point you out…
You, you, definitely you, you, you, well, you are completely insane, but I like you anyway, you… no, sorry, I was pointing at that guy behind you… you, both of you, you… no,wait, sorry, I never really liked you… you, you, and, oh, you…you, I may even love a little.
Glad I could clear that up.
Thank you, my friends.
Pouring My Art Out 
This is a deeply thoughtful, and delightingly sweet post. You made my list, very high on it, too. I love your miscreant tendencies, but below that I see a gentle, warm and loving man. ♡
Judith
awww… shucks…
Morning PMAO. We are flashmobbing Hotspur today. I thought you might be interested in helping. For more details: http://wp.me/p2pR2U-1n3
“Friendship is an emotion, and we have no way to share these except with words.”
Love that. I’ve been trying for four years to come up with that exact thought about how I feel about certain people on the internet.
I love the conversation I started.
My friend, can you front me a Twenty? Just kidding, of course. The nice thing about friendship is that we each get to define it to our own satisfaction.
That is the obvious answer.
Your daughter moved out on her own. It’s natural to be scared.
See there you go being all sensitive and stuff. Have you been drinking enough water? Seriously, she is doing so well it is hard to feel too depressed about it. Two jobs, a cool boyfriend, and now she got a pretty good position, as a volunteer organizer for the Obama campaign.
Sounds like you wish you were her.
We all should.
and YOU.
Short but sweet?
sometimes less is best.
There you go.
indeed.
Damn! You are spot on, brotha!!
Have you been reading my diary? If you have, could you tell me where you found it because I misplaced it!?! Thanks Blueberry Head.
Sure, Blomogranate. (You like that one?)
It is right where someone else left it.
I LIKE Blomogranite! Like like like, alot!
Where did someone else leave it?
Well how the heck would I know.
You are not being very helpful, Artie McArtisan.
Dude, if you want to give me your address, I will come help you look for it. I bet it is in your underwear drawer.
Do I look like a ‘dude’ to you?
I don’t even have underwear in my underwear drawer, so the diary isn’t in there either.
Nevermind. I’ll ask somebody else to help.
I just want to be helpful. And I call everyone dude, even my mother.
I’m sorry my, my little blomogranite… I will consult the oracle, I will unleash the hounds, I will canvas the area, I will deploy the troops and mobilize the army! Your diary will not escape us…
Ooops- I forgot- I don’t have a diary.
Sowwy.
Oh, fer cryin’ out loud…
I love too many people on here way too much for them to not be real friends.
I know. I just felt the need to over analyze it, for some strange reason.
Yeah, me too… 😉
I know, I was teasing you.
I figured that. I think I am just in need of a vacation…from my mind…
I take those all the time. In fact, I have been on one since I started this blog. Just saying…
I’m talking more of an acid trip, but blogging is okay…
I am not commenting on this subject until I have my second blog up and running.
Lol, that is too funny. I’ll tell you a secret…Acid and shrooms were the best drugs I ever tried. Only one time each, but they are good. Ecstasy was fun too. I have tried almost every kind of drug imaginable. Lesson for the day…the more you know, or something like that.
So I guess keeping the level of conversation on a kid-friendly level only works when its your blog, is that it?
Just delete that comment goofy. You are in control of your blog. I delete stuff on my good blog all the time if it doesn’t fit those impossibly high standards. 😉
Hey, you invented the standards, as I recall, and I used to get in trouble all the time. In my best Brokeback Mountain cowboy voice I say, “I wish I could sensor you.” But I can’t. Nor edit your sweet prose… or references to Prozac. I shall not cut you or delete you or alter you or obscure you. Neither abridged nor misquoted shall you be!
(If you really want to know my history, drop me an email sometime. Oh, I got stories.)
I will probably forget but I believe you. You look like a druggie. The acid thing was good for me until someone started having a bad trip. That was scary. I will try to remeber to email. you…nevermind, I already was going to earlier today to give you the password to my post. What is your email?
It has to be here somewhere… other people found it… I can never remember…
And I think you meant ‘looked’ like a druggie… don’t you?
whatever you need to tell yourself.
What are you saying exactly?
Oh, I’m sorry…Y o u l o o k l i k e a d r u g g i e .
Thanks for this post. Maybe some of us will meet in real life, maybe we won’t. But I always remember that there is an actual human being on the other end of the Internet connection and have fun making online friendships, hearing about their perspectives on the world and sharing info with them. And being sassy to them on occasion (like you!). 😉
We are sort of like real people, aren’t we!?…
It is sort of funny how we all use the word ‘friend’, but we never got together and figured out exactly what the word means. Oh, funny humans.
online friendship is perhaps a little different to a friendship in reality, but the base of both are the same. Back when i was more into spending hours playing computer games, one of the ‘clans’ i was part of was spread out across the whole of Europe. Yet the older members (not me only being about 13 through to 15 at the time) became such good friends online that they endeavoured to meet up somewhere different in Europe every year.
Now if that is not friendship, i don’t know what is. It is definitely that fundamental point of caring that you mention, which governs friendship. These guys from the clan cared enough about their online friends to travel half way across Europe to meet up with people they knew only from a computer game. Some might call that over the top. I call that dedication and true friendship.