Sad Farewells.

A growing realisation came fully home to me yesterday: Cyberspace can be a remarkably potent medium for making real connections with people and animals. I would never have thought it; I used to be utterly uncomprehending of those stories of people meeting over the internet and ending up married. Not any more, it seems. Some of the connections I’ve made over the internet in recent years have been substantially more meaningful than the vast majority of those I made in the ‘real’ world. I suppose when you have the whole planet to wander on, you’re bound to find the odd diamond among the routine pebbles scattered over the field of life.

And so I went to bed feeling sad last night. I had to say farewell to two of those connections – first to a person in America who used to come bearing the magic tinder box, and then to the very smashing Mr Dog of upstate New York, whose trips to Maine and ball-digging in the snow were a source of delight.

The first has, I hope, a lot of living to do yet. She deserves that it be a rich and vibrant experience. I’m sure it won’t always be happy, but I hope that it might be mostly so.

The second had, I’m reliably informed by his human, also a person of some significance, a ‘long and happy life.’ I’m sure he deserved every minute of it.