The Face of Loneliness

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I don’t have time for a very rich social life. Having written some 30 books since my retirement, plus countless articles, short stories, blogs and poems (in two languages), my social interaction is limited to occasional dinners for six, both in and out of my house. In spite of that, perhaps thanks to my wife, I’ve never felt lonely. Perhaps loneliness is a luxury I simply do not have time for. 

And this brings me to the famous, infamous for some, Facebook.

There, I count friends in their hundreds, soon to be thousands. And believe me, some have proven to be real friends: helpful, obliging, giving, cheering, showering me with encouragements in my writing aspirations.

And then there are the others. The lonely ones. They too are friends. They too have the need to share their interests, even as I do. The only problem is that I really have little interest in cooking/baking cakes, finding new ways to become obese in quickest way possible. While I love animals, some own me even now, I find only about a thousand expressions a cat can have which I feel the need to share with others—the next 10,001 are, well, repetitions on the same theme.

And then there are those who keep forgetting what they look like, and feel the need to tell the world that they uploaded yet another image of themselves, to make sure that we, too, don’t forget their faces. Well, they are Facebook friends. Take away their faces and what have you got left?

Cakes, cats, dogs and… is there something else?

Yes. There is. There are others.

There are those who share with me their latest achievements. The books they read, or wrote, the articles of interest, deep political/religious observations, and a thousand and one items of interest, which often brighten my day.

Finally, there are the jewels among my FB friends. They display on my home page a piece of art, or a miracle of nature, and when I click on it I am invited to their secret gardens, they call them albums, wherein they share with me miracles of human or nature’s achievements.

Unfortunately those are the few. The many will continue sharing their faces, cats, dogs and the latest fattening ingredients of their daily diet.

Good luck to all of you. Happy Hanukah and, although it’s still a bit early, Happy Xmas, Feliz Navidad, Joyous Kwanzaa, and Merry whatever it is that you’re celebrating. And I also wish you Happy Facebooking in 2013!

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

Ask for FREE downloads at mailto:stan@stanlaw.ca