I Find My Friends on the Internet

The Internet is an amazing thing. You can sit in your home and watch video of a woman in Britain who people laugh at when she says she wants to sing and then cheer her when she opens her mouth and a beautiful voice comes out. You can have 1 million people sign up to have someone “tweet” at them so you can be privy to their every whim every second of the day. You can watch both beauty and devastation from the recliner in your living room while you eat popcorn and play fetch with your dog.

You can escape into your screen and ignore your family and your obligations and become addicted to games about Vampires or sites like Facebook and MySpace. The computer can alienate you from your family and friends but, in some cases, it can also introduce you to people who you would NEVER meet under every day life circumstances. People who touch your heart and become your friends. I am thinking about the Internet now as I wait word from a dear friend whom I have never met. A man who is waiting for his father to die. A father who was removed from machines so that God can take charge of what is to be. Does this sound familiar to me? You bet it does.

I met JG on Facebook. It was one of those I click on someone and then click on someone else and finally somewhere down the line I wind up on a page of someone who touches something in me. This has happened a few times with MySpace too. I have made some lovely friends on MySpace who I feel are my dear friends. We cheer each other when we are down and truly care about each other. My Facebook friend I found when he had a status about his dad being sick. The “Daddy” thing totally gets my attention every time.

I have been emailing and Facebooking JG ever since. There have been many more downs then ups and then the bad news this week. It is just a matter of time. Although I have never met JG, I consider him a friend. I have been emailing him a lot the past few days because I remember vividly how it was with my dad. How alone I felt. How confused. How lost. When a few of my friends failed to show up or contact me it was a huge blow to everything that I had always believed my life to be. First my dad suffered, then he was gone and my support system was damaged. I never want anyone to go through that.

So I email my friend JG and offer a cyber hug and a typed hand to hold. Knowing that life has a way of turning on a dime. That some things you know to be true turn out to be falser than you could have thought possible. And that sometimes your support and friends come from the most unlikely of places. Like the Internet.