One Degree Of Separation

The ages old Kevin Bacon game not withstanding, it is said we're all connected to one another by no more than six degrees of separation.

Well I say, that in our cyber-connected world and the ubiquitous use of social networking sites like Facebook, it's now coming down to one degree of separation. It's not a 100% yet as there are still some Neanderthals out there who shy away from computers in general let alone Facebook et al, but it's getting there.

A few weeks ago I got a message and friend request through FB from the girl who I took to my Freshman Year High School Prom. She still lives in the hometown, in fact in the Social Corner district so not a very cheery existence for her.

Her hobbies appear to be crafting, complaining about her multiple car accident injuries, getting fat, collecting old photos of herself and praying to the Catholic saints (and maybe sometimes Jesus).

She wanted me to scan and email any pictures I had of us on that one date we had, the prom. Huh? I felt like emailing her back telling her I don't even have any pics of myself from back then why would I have pics of her. It did remind me of the fact that my mom did actually take several photos of us in our dress-up clothes that evening as we were headed out to the Bocce Club.

It was a semi-formal so I was dressed in my father's polyester light-brown 3-piece suit that was a smidgen too big for me and Karen (the girl's name) was in a homemade pink chiffon mu mu gown cinched in a somewhat Empire fashion (way before that style became vogue again) with a stitched on red crushed velvet cape, clasped with a faux ivory cameo. Yeah...hideous. Man, wasn't I enough of a social retard at school. I'm sure she made it worse. I only asked her because I knew she had no other takers and she was obviously ga ga over me.

Well, once I emailed her back and told her those pics were long lost, and filled her in on the fact that I was gay, I never heard from her again. I'm surprised she didn't drop me as a FB friend.

Another Facebook reunion happened just a few days ago.

My sister of all people.

She wants to strike up a friendship and open dialogue again. I said okay. She wants me to play those stupid FB games like Yoville and Farmville or whatever. I told her I wasn't interested in that but we could talk.

I think something's going on because she mentioned her "life was falling apart" right now. And for her to reach out to me is big. She's just as stubborn, if not more so, than me. I'd assumed long ago that we'd never speak to each other again for the rest of our lives.

If you recall, the last encounter with her was not all that pleasant. After that incident, she had called me in January 2005 to see if I would call Dad. I told her no and asked her to not bother me.

So we'll see how this plays out. I'm not sure how I feel about it growing beyond what it is.

Sometimes it's better if what happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook.