Friendship is my thought for today.
Friendship has faced some changes since the advance and availability of the internet.
There are our day-to-day friendships; some casual, light-hearted and transient, others steadfast, lifelong, supportive, wrapped in love and caring.
Pen pals with friendships carried by letter, to friends who have moved away have changed dramatically. Over the generations, letters have been found and kept, tracing great friendship and longing to meet again; over long periods. Some never managed to reconnect; others joyfully did.
There were friendships started by the lonely, to people unknown to them. Some did end with a meeting, others never did.
Wars created great waves of pen-pals, sharing heart-felt feelings, of desperation and tender love longings. Those letters often contained drawings, snippets of hair, pressed flowers, and later photographs and some sprinkled with scent. (or tobacco, coal smoke and mud from war zones). Sometimes, the letters ended abruptly, with no knowledge of what might have happened and no way to find out - leaving feelings of bereavement and loss as strong and as tangible as touching hugging friendships did.
Because of the difficulty of transporting such letters, events could have changed dramatically from the time of writing, till receiving them, stretched over months and in the distant past, years. The postman became a vital part of this type of friendship. The arrival of the airplane speeded up communication to the delight of letter writers everywhere.
Today, we have the extraordinary arrival of the internet, with the instant connection with friends and family in real-time, both by the written word and if wanted vision.
The idea of friendship has taken on an amazing new dimension. We connect to or make tangible friends and can be passed on by them, to more friends.
Because of the ease of usage, friendships have sprung up all over the World. From the remotest of places to bustling technically advanced cities, spreading information, news and gossip in an instant.
Sometimes some of these friendships turn sour and hurtful and should not be tolerated and so delete them from your list of real friends. Report abuse is not acceptable in any friendship.
The friendships made can be amazing, very close and long-lasting. I personally have a group of good friends connected in this way. Some have become very close over the years and we share conversations of varying lengths, and laughter, lots of laughter from time to time, almost like a loving family. A few of us share more difficult or enlightening parts of our lives with its ups and downs daily. If we do not hear from one another, we call to check all is well.
This raises another issue; the loss of a connection! What to do? We no longer have the addresses on letterheads to reply to.
We rightly have to be careful who and when we share our addresses online. It has taken me years in some friendships! Others I have been able to meet and it has happened more quickly.
I have had four occasions where a loss of connection has caused great anxiety and because they live alone and were in frail health which required action. I had no address for the three of them in other countries, so looked at their profiles to see what part of their country they might live in. I then rang the nearest Police Force to report my concern. Two were medical emergencies including the one I had an address for. The other was found to have had total internet failure.
It made me think that for very close friendships over time we should share an address or telephone number for emergencies so we can activate help and support from afar.
This leads to another point for us all to consider, which is the wearing of an Emergency Alarm button and Medical Alert button or bracelet. The latter can provide life-saving information for Ambulance crews and Doctors when you are unable to speak for yourself.
I value all my friendships no matter how or when we have connected. Losses are very sad, bereavements just as difficult as tangible ones, they leave a hole in my life.
However, there is always the chance of making contact with another amazing wonderful friend. It could be today!
Say safe, be kind to one another and others when you can and stay in touch in friendship.
© 2022 Penny Wobbly of WobblingPen
Photo: Pixabay License
