Friends and Friendship

Angelics Beach House...late model creation..old resident * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Friends and Friendship... Last evening I listened with a degree of sadness as a close friend of mine commented on the loss some months ago of her first friend here in Secondlife. I could hear the sense of loss... Her friend didn't die real life...That friend didn't even leave this platform. And I agree with my friend that much of what she percieved as friendship was a contrived thing on the others part. It still hurt. I believe that a great imagination is the key to getting total immersion here in Secondlife. For me, as many others, there seems to be a sense of vulnerability when first coming to this world. I see it first hand on almost a daily basis working with so many nooblets...We are confused...so unsure...much like moving to a new city and school as a child. I think I'm incredibly lucky in so many ways...My very first friend in Secondlife is still here...still my friend... Lala. I guess I'm learning that that may not be everyones situation. Since that evening at the Ahern Welcome Area there have been many *friends*. I use that term guardedly...since *friends* in Secondlife doesn't always mean "friends". I do consider many on my contacts list as friends...in a couple of cases I've actually been named executor of their Secondlife estate should something happen real life. Actually being a friend is to be trusted with a piece of anothers heart...not something to be lightly cast aside...or manipulated for any gain. I understand the difference between friend and mentor...Some I mentor become friends. One person that works for me asked me one day how many friends were on my contacts list. {You see for various reasons, after some time in world, I was her second friend.} I sat and counted...there were something like 100 plus names in my list. Some were my alts...some are residents here...many are new people that I have attempted to help enter Secondlife....Close friends?..not many. I have mentioned many times my friend Twinkle...We are still friends....Twin was in my first five friends I'm sure. Today Twinkle doesn't get in world often...and we don't touch often via Email. She stayed here in world long after it ceased being easy for her...{Twin is from Bangladesh and connection speeds there to run Secondlife at the speeds many of us use are prohibitively expensive}... My heart sank when she came to me and told me that her promise of staying a year to get this place up and running had ended. I've said before that her leaving was necessary for my growth....A true friend will not do for you what you need to do for yourself. I see no end to our friendship =^..^= Choose your friends wisely is something most of us heard as children.... New in Secondlife so many of us are still as children.... I want to believe that Benares allows us to have a place of love and trust....a place to both be a friend..and to have friends... It's your life...live it wisely And so it goes I love you, brinda Namaste