Δευτέρα 10 Οκτωβρίου 2011

Sorry, facebook


You should never mock anything in life. You just might live long enough to have to kneel down some day and lick what you have spat on before.

That’s exactly what I’ve had to do lately. Facebook was too superficial for me; silly posts, empty dialogue, and an army of virtual friends to brag about. When I finally succumbed, it was just so that I could add another link to my professional site in an effort to generate some extra traffic. The only posts I would have to add would be professional announcements, photographs would be superfluous, and it wouldn’t hurt to accept invitations of “friendship”.

But, wait! Who was that? How moronic of me! Facebook isn’t for keeping in touch with friends who live across the street! It’s for those who make an effort to keep in touch with people they can’t casually invite over for a drink.

So now, like a toddling infant trying to train for a marathon, I keep falling flat on my face. Where do I begin?  How do I connect thirty or so years of loose dots with a few short lines? Would they be interested or have the time to read about the story of my life?

Do I tell them that I have found my vocation in teaching English and that the biggest reward I’ve been getting for my endless and passionate devotion to my work is the respect and recognition I’ve received from my students? Will they care that my career as a tourism instructor, for which I had spent years studying, went down the drain overnight just as it was taking off in that dreadful September of 2001?

Should I mention that for over twenty years I’ve been happily married to a wonderful woman, who happens to be my best friend as well? That I haven’t had any children, but I have an amazing stepdaughter/daughter who got married two years ago and was fortunate enough to bring a kind and witty son-in-law into our family?

Would they be interested to learn that I have been obsessed with traveling and have done more than my fair share of globetrotting?  That I now feel ashamed and responsible for the shambles my country is in because we have been voting the same political families blindfold for half a century?

If there is one thing I should tell Cathy, Colin, Erik, Lisa, Luisa, Robert, Ruth and Stephen it is that they have always occupied a very cosy nook in my mind and that the memories we wove together during that carefree year form a priceless keepsake in my life’s treasure chest.

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