Tenuous Ties
"C" (for client) came to see me in 2014 to get his taxes done. He was in his late 20s and a gregarious, energetic man. He referred a couple of other clients to me.
"L" is someone I met a long time ago in an internet chat room. We spent hours talking online and on the phone about almost anything and everything.
"G" is someone I met more than a decade ago playing an online game. We became friends in the real world as well as the world of cyberspace but I haven't seen her in person for quite some time.
What got me thinking about our tenuous ties to some of the people in our lives was something that happened at work the other morning. "O" is a client that C referred to me and in the middle of preparing O's tax return, he mentioned that C had died recently. I did not know that C had issues involving substance abuse and that he'd passed as the result of complications from the inhalation of whipped cream. Just to clarify, people who do that aren't overdosing on the delicious whipped cream, they are seeking a high from the nitrous oxide that serves as the propellant that propels the cream out of the cannister. I know all about people who use nitrous oxide that way, I used to date someone for whom that was their drug of choice. But hearing that someone I knew had died from this was pretty shocking. It was a reminder to me of how tenuous our ties are to those we don't interact with in the real world.
I have 221 "friends" on Facebook as of this date. Some I know through my work. Some are longtime friends I first met back in elementary school or later on in high school. Some I connected with during my military service and the rest I've encountered since leaving the military. Of this group, some I touch base with almost every day, and some only rarely. I feel even more disconnected than ever before after this incident.
L died in 2010, suddenly and unexpectedly. She was a little older than me, with grown children. She had found love again and gotten married. She'd found a new home, a new job and a whole new life and then it was gone. I didn't know she'd passed until I read loving tributes to her on her FB page. Her friends and family still write to her there and I think that's pretty cool.
I'd been worried about G because more than a month had passed since her last message but I heard from her a few days ago. Problems with her access to the internet. Like me, she has health issues and I'd been concerned. I feel better knowing she is alive and well.
The best boss I have ever worked for just posted that someone she'd been friends with for more than 35 years had died. I had listened to her stories about that friend for decades and thought very highly of him as a result.
Our ties to those we consider friends, and to our family are indeed tenuous.
"L" is someone I met a long time ago in an internet chat room. We spent hours talking online and on the phone about almost anything and everything.
"G" is someone I met more than a decade ago playing an online game. We became friends in the real world as well as the world of cyberspace but I haven't seen her in person for quite some time.
What got me thinking about our tenuous ties to some of the people in our lives was something that happened at work the other morning. "O" is a client that C referred to me and in the middle of preparing O's tax return, he mentioned that C had died recently. I did not know that C had issues involving substance abuse and that he'd passed as the result of complications from the inhalation of whipped cream. Just to clarify, people who do that aren't overdosing on the delicious whipped cream, they are seeking a high from the nitrous oxide that serves as the propellant that propels the cream out of the cannister. I know all about people who use nitrous oxide that way, I used to date someone for whom that was their drug of choice. But hearing that someone I knew had died from this was pretty shocking. It was a reminder to me of how tenuous our ties are to those we don't interact with in the real world.
I have 221 "friends" on Facebook as of this date. Some I know through my work. Some are longtime friends I first met back in elementary school or later on in high school. Some I connected with during my military service and the rest I've encountered since leaving the military. Of this group, some I touch base with almost every day, and some only rarely. I feel even more disconnected than ever before after this incident.
L died in 2010, suddenly and unexpectedly. She was a little older than me, with grown children. She had found love again and gotten married. She'd found a new home, a new job and a whole new life and then it was gone. I didn't know she'd passed until I read loving tributes to her on her FB page. Her friends and family still write to her there and I think that's pretty cool.
I'd been worried about G because more than a month had passed since her last message but I heard from her a few days ago. Problems with her access to the internet. Like me, she has health issues and I'd been concerned. I feel better knowing she is alive and well.
The best boss I have ever worked for just posted that someone she'd been friends with for more than 35 years had died. I had listened to her stories about that friend for decades and thought very highly of him as a result.
Our ties to those we consider friends, and to our family are indeed tenuous.
posted by me at 10:09 AM
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