Life Can Be Short
Facebook has been a wonderful addition to my life. I have been able to connect with people I haven’t seen in 30 years. I can hear about their joys (kids, marriage, travel, etc.) and have a good time. I have throughly enjoyed finding out that the years have seemingly erased any cliches, or groups that we were or were not a part of. Just the sheer nostalgia of connection is enough to create a new type of “friendship”. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to go to a 30 year reunion in September. And I have the idea that no one will care that I am short, fat, or wrinkled. Unfortunately, with this new communication source, we also get to hear the sad news. I just found out that one our classmates died in a skydiving accident on Saturday. The same age as me, 48. Were it not for Facebook I would never have known until some other time in the future, when it wouldn’t be fresh and it would be a “I’m sorry to hear that” moment. But it isn’t, it just happened, and though we weren’t close in school and I haven’t seen him in 30 years, it touches me. Facebook brings the joyful and the sad together.
On a side note, while I am sorry for his family – if you gotta go early, at least he was having fun!