If ever proof was needed of the power of the internet to bring people together, this weekend was it.
About two years ago, while messing around with the various internet community systems around, I came across “MySpace”, and filled in my profile with the various things I’m interested in. Over the course of a few weeks I cross-posted my blog entries to MySpace, and was surprised to find a few people reading my ramblings. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but in amongst the group of people I ended up messaging this girl in the United States (I’m in the UK), who had a similar love of books, authors and writing.
Skipping forwards over the last two years, that chance encounter had become probably my best friend. We discovered we were two very different people on opposite sides of the world, but that our lives were strangely similar. Through daily emails, messages and voice calls we came to know each other perhaps as you might a brother or sister - we worried about each other, shared good times, bad times and slowly became inseperable.
About two months ago, I got a message that a certain somebody had the chance to visit London for a few days. That chance turned into this weekend, and the two distant friends finally got a chance to meet each other.
The most amazing thing that I might perhaps take from the weekend is that although we met in the “real world” for the first time on Saturday, there was a wonderful sense of knowing - of trust - of security - the reassurance in being allowed to be yourself with a friend as you might your partner. Not having to make conversation. Being able to catch their eye across a crowded room and read their expresson - a silent conversation if you will.
I was reminded this weekend of something I heard many years ago that has proven true more than once in my life - that not everybody understands the difference between loving somebody, and being in love with somebody until they have experienced both. While introducing this long-travelled friend to friends and family, the thought suddenly struck me - “what if they think something is going on here?” - but then I remembered the lesson I had learned, and realised that they would either know and understand the same truth, or would come to understand it in the future.
This weekend should prove to anybody and everybody that the internet has the capacity to do great good, to bring people together, and to bond people. It really works…