NIPPED IN THE BUD

“True Friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.” - Charles Caleb Colton

The virtual world of 360 is a strange one, sometimes funny, at other times sad, perhaps distressing or maybe even frightening, but always interesting. It is a microcosm fashioned in the likeness of reality and one may find in it all of the human types one may encounter in one’s immediate neighbourhood. I always take people at face value and try to be as honest as I can be without betraying confidences, by respecting sensibilities and by protecting those whom I love. However, even with such a policy how often is it that what we write here can be misinterpreted, misconstrued, misunderstood? How often is it that what a reader reads will reflect what he or she wants to understand, rather than what we write simply, honestly and without artifice?

How much more clearly can I say to people than this: “I am not here to search for a partner, a wife or a lover”? Is there any better way to say to someone: “If you do not allow replies to messages sent from your blog, I cannot reply”? Or how much more clearly can one say the following: “I cannot add you to my friends list as I have reached the maximum number of friends allowed by Yahoo”? One tries to be gentle, considerate, polite, urbane, tactful and respectful of others, and one may reap abuse and inarticulate ramblings in reply.

I am blogging here because I like to share some of my thoughts with others. What I know I wish to share with others. I think that what I write here may interest a small number of people and many of you have become dear friends, even though may thousands of kilometres separate us. In the past I had more time to enjoy reading many more of my friends’ blogs. My work and personal commitments lately have meant that I have had to curtail much of that agreeable activity. It is hard enough to keep up with writing my daily blogs sometimes, but I persist as they are a welcome break from my busy schedule and a way of resting my mind. An intellectual meditation in a sphere distant from my everyday mental gymnastics at work. A noetic workout that relaxes me and clears my mind from the matters at work that demand much care and responsible decision-making.

I wrote this poem recently and dedicate it to lost friends, here on Yahoo 360.

Of Friendship Nipped in the Bud

I smiled as my open hand I stretched,
My gift so generous, was misconstrued,
And from a giver, I was made a mendicant.

A singing bird my heart was perched
On greenwood branch; but soon the warble rued
My wings were clipped, I turned into a flightless elephant.

To share with joy, all my possessions fetched,
But my offerings were thrown out and strewed
And my frankness - dismissed as mere cant.

You yearned for love, I offered companionship
You searched for passion’s fire, I gave you fellowship.
Just as the flower of friendship was to bloom,
You nipped it in the bud - now emptiness, now gloom
Where bright flowers could have been.