Friends

We all need friends. At different times in our lives, we have different kinds of friends. There are the friends we have as children, because they live close by, or because we can play in their pool, and they can play on our swingset. We used to get together with some girls just to play with Barbies. As we got older, we would form alliances, sometimes, rather than friendships, especially in high school. I think high school is where we learned that we couldn't trust everyone who wanted us to spill our guts.

Mature friendship is based on several factors. Like a mate, a friend usually shares our core values. For instance, if I feel strongly about fidelity in marriage, I'm not going to have a best friend who cheats on her spouse. I still have my "convenience" friends--people I shop with, or go to movies with, or chum around with at our yoga class.

But there are some activities that encourage friendship of a deeper sort. Theater is one. There is something about working together to build an illusion that strips away our usual boundaries and lets out the raw and hidden interior, which bonds with the same truths within others. Some of my best friends are in theater. I can say anything to them, and they can accept it.

Blogging is another area where real friendship can develop. I know that some people write "fake" blogs; invent a personality that is far removed from their real selves. But, if you choose to write about the truths and feelings and incidents in your real life, your real community, your hobbies, your memories and your loves and hates, you draw like-minded people to you. These so-called "cyber friends" can become as important as friends you see every day. Some of us are lucky enough, once in a while, to meet our "cyber friends" face to face, and see the truth and reality that we have been communicating by keyboard for years.

I recently had an opportunity to do just that.

To borrow a word from a younger generation, it was awesome!