The Web

I just got an email from Ray, a man I met two years ago online. We have never met, of course, -he lives in Texas- but still he's an example of how some friendships are just meant to be. You see, this is a guy who's sweet and very nice. He's in a relationship too, and he was also going through a rough patch by the time we 'met'. I think we met in a website where we used to chat and play with our webcams. It was a small community online and I made two very good friends: Ray and Pedro in Spain. We used to cam and chat and email each other and talk on the IM and send each other stuff via snail mail.

It was lots of fun and it helped me through a very rough patch. Not to mention that I was alone for three weeks because he was traveling and I was homebound by ten inches of snow outside. It was cozy. It was fun and it was above all, a life saver. Ray and Pedro have kept on doing their lives and we do not cam anymore. Pedro dropped out of the face of the 'net but Ray is still my cyber-friend. He's one of the reasons I got on MySpace -I cordially despise that site- and we still write to each other. I'm even going to send him a Christmas card, he's so sweet.

Pedro, I would really like to see/read/hear from again. I can say we had a very intense friendship for almost a year. We messaged each other every day and we got to be very, very close through email and the camera. But I guess his life changed -there were not many jobs for him in Canarias, his family was going through a rough patch- and my last emails to his account came back unanswered. But he was very, very nice to me during the year we kept our cyber-friendship going. Not much hope there either, given that we live in opposite sides of the world, but he was a very welcome presence in my incursions in cyberspace.

I wish I could say the same of some friendships I've made with some people who are actually closer physically. Maybe some people are just not meant to be my friends. Maybe some people are just incapable to forge strong links with other people just because, not because they can 'get' something from the friendship. So in that respect, I'm glad I'm still Ray's friend. You see, he makes me feel like there's nice people out there, that are worthy of our time and love. Cool guy this Ray. Actually, I'll send him a Christmas card via snail mail. That way, for a moment, I'll become tangible to him. Which is much more than I can say about other 'friends'.