Day 33: Stop oh yes wait a minute

I couldn't resist this picture of the young Exiles singing, dancing and playing guitar - all things I have been known to enjoy - with different levels of competence.

Today I received an email from an old school friend. I only just received it as it had been sent to an about-to-be-defunct email address. We had not lost touch completely, but Christmas cards and change-of-address notifications were about all we had managed in recent years. We have moved in different directions physically and been busy with careers and young families. However, it was these same things: distance, career and a young family that led to this renewed contact. With a consciousness of my physical distance from my past I found myself looking at FriendsReunited the other day and noticed that one of my school friends had just become a father for the first time. Being a cheapskate, I managed to track him down on the internet via his job as a barrister and after we renewed our acquaintance he ended up mentioning me to the other friend, causing him to send that email.

The same technology that encourages and to some extent enables our dispersion around the world also enables us to easily renew acquaintances that in the past would have required great acts of will, organisation and/or chance. It really is a small world. Friendships are very valuable and I should really do more to prevent them disappearing through neglect, especially when the act of staying (or getting back) in touch has probably never been so easy.