The Power of Friends

I have always felt fortunate to have friends. And after this weekend, I feel blessed beyond belief. I turned 45 Sunday and birthdays can usually be bummers as we get older. But this weekend, I had an experience way different from past birthdays. This was my first Facebook birthday and thanks to the online social network, I truly felt the love.

For those not familiar with Facebook - it's a way to stay connected to old friends, classmates, coworkers, distant family and even Y-Guides/Princess pals. While it started out as a teen targeted web diversion, it has grown into an awesome opportunity to reconnect and stay connected to friends the world over. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I lost count of the number of Facebook friends that sent birthday wishes to me over the weekend and every one I got made me smile just that much more than the previous message. From the simple "Happy Birthday, Roger!" to the more complex, crude, rude, nasty old man jokes at my expense, every word tickled my heart.

One of the features of Facebook is being able to mass tag friends in a single message or request. Late in the week I tagged a mess of folks and asked each of them to write me back and share with me their fondest memory of me or whatever the first thing that pops into their head about me. The messages I got back were from all over the place in my personal history - all made me smile, a lot made me laugh and some made me cry:

- My wife drug up the time I broke up with her back in junior high and how she's awaiting the perfect time to exact her revenge.

- A former N&O co-worker brought up an awesome newspaper story experience.

- A college pal reminded me of a few - ahem - adventures we shared in our younger days.

- A Trailblazer tribemate Big Brave bud mentioned our recent Rockmont weekend self-guided white-water rafting trip, complete with banjo music.

- And my best childhood friend laid on a litany of various and sundry items that had me laughing out loud one second and tearing up the next.

Each message I read caused my chest to swell with pride or eyes to redden from the precious memories I was fortunate enough to share with these great friends over the years. I am proud to claim many people as a friend and each one of them has a special place in my heart. It is that friendship and comraderie that ultimately gives me strength - and gives me the power to be a better person and the best friend that I can be...

How-How!