Face to MySpace

In the past week or so, I've discovered the evil nemesis of MySpace: Facebook. (In reality, I don't know that the two are enemies. In my mind, they are polar opposites and thus, must be pitted against one another. Cue the evil cackle - mwaaah, mwaah...)

While I naturally enjoy the more adolescent tone of MySpace, with the surveys and layouts and music and, well, surveys, I have to say it's been quite a trip to catch up with some long lost pals on the more sophisticated Facebook. In fact, there is also a bit of overlap, with more than one MySpace friend drifting with me between the two sites, updating profiles and pictures and current status.

In a way, I feel like I am a voyeuristic stalker of these other folks - and in large measure, of my own past. When I see those faces from days gone by, it's like a flashback to a whole different life. Was it really that long ago we were all hanging out at Kegler's on a Friday night? Gosh, that seems like yesterday.

Or, put another way, was it really only six years ago? Feels like forever. Our lives moved upward and onward and did so quickly. It happened in such a blur, I was hardly aware of it. One day, things were different, changed in some fundamental way while I turned my head for a second. Marriages and pregnancies and families and now, we're all hooked into each others' lives through virtual networking sites.

It's just as well. A lot of these old friends still have real-life, in-person relationships with each other, miles and lifetimes away from where I sit typing my random thoughts. Others are like me, off on our own to trudge through life on alternate paths.

I guess I'm just glad to have a connection where I can get it, even if it does come with a twinge of nostalgic sadness. These people are still my friends, even if we can't sit at the same table anymore to trade laughs and smokes and carefree whimsy. We have all gone to our respective corners, which is as it should be as you grow.

It is good to know everyone seems well. It is good to realize we can still share the love, even if we no longer can share a pitcher of beer. It is good to think that maybe, someday, in some spin on the universe, we may sit together again in person, laptops put away for a night of honest-to-goodness comraderie.

I, for one, hold out hope for that. I also know that Facebook may be the closest I ever come.