Yeah...what was the point to that Chris?

You know how people do those things on the internet, where people write a list of their friends and then proceed to inform all the poor souls who read said list why they love their friends so very much?

These lists generally bore me, because, well, they are boring. These people who are supposedly best friends can't seem to think of anything interesting about each other to inform the world about.

Example (quoted from a facebook group that shall go unnamed):

i love her because she is the love of my life. shes my best friend and my cousin. we know everything about each other and we have talked about everything in the world. she is everything to me and i would take 129837 bullets for her. she's the greatest person i know.

I love her because she is the love of my life

Well. I guess that is correct enough...

But it doesn't tell one much, does it?

Greatest person I know

Again, the sentiment, but why? Why is she the greatest?

Now. Perchance you all think I am nit picking here. And hell, I think I am nit picking.

Just to be clear, I am not critising the person who wrote this, and I do have a point. I think its great that she is letting the world know how much she loves her friends. And I'm sure her friends appreciate being told that too. I know I would appreciate being told how great I am every so often. (Please refrain from doing that, btw. My ego is already large enough).

No. My point is very simplistic.

STOP WRITING BORING TRASH ON THE PARTS OF THE INTERNET THAT EVERYONE CAN SEE.

Hypocritical? Probably. Deal with it.

But if one is going to inform the world why they think their friends are so great, do it in a way that arouses interest. You do justice to your ability to understand yourself, and you do justice to the people who surround you, and you do justice to your audience.

And the ACTUAL point for me writing this? Well, I just wanted to see if I could actually write something substantial and interesting about why I think my friends are great.

*******

Morgan.

I have known Morgan since year seven. He happens to be one of the first actual friends I made at high school. And he got me into the nerd group (achievement much?).

Morgan had a square head, rosy cheeks, and flat feet. Now he has long sexy hair, and a voice that makes people wonder how his pants contain his testicles.

If I had to sum him up in one word, I would say loyal, though its up there with trustworthy. I'm not entirely sure I have come across a more loyal person. He is one of those people who keeps his closest friends close, and distances himself from the rest. I can't see him stabbing me in the back. If he were going to stab me, it would be right out there in the open, for everyone to see. And I would most definitely have deserved it.

Adam.

Adam is very simple. This makes him a great friend. There is no crap with Adam. He tells it like it is. If you went to Adam with a problem, he would laugh at you. He also is incredibly hilarious. More so when he is angry.

Adam is my misanthropic comic relief.

*******

I would keep going.

But I am not too proud to admit that I think I have failed. Feel free to inform me otherwise, but I think if you ask yourself honestly you will find that nothing there was particularly interesting for you. Unless you are Adam or Morgan.

Apparently it is a lot harder to write something interesting and substantial about one's friends than I thought.

See, I think the main problem here is that if you don't know the people, none of it really means anything to you. Thus the audience will not be engaged with anything that you are writing.

Thus I have a new point.

Tell your friends personally, whether through email, text, msn, phone, or face to face, why they are so great. They will appreciate you for it, I assure you.

The world is never as interested in you as you want it to be.

Faces in a crowd

People fascinate me. Which I suppose is a good thing, considering I don't have much choice but to interact with them.

Now that, my friends, is a rather boring introduction...I once wrote an entire "seminar" on introductions, and how to make them work.

Turns out the "seminar" either sucked, or I just failed to listen to myself.

And judging by the huge amount that I love myself, I doubt it was the latter.

But this tangent is also boring.

Or is it?

Did you see what I did there. I started saying something, and the first three lines grabbed you, and asked "yeah, what's your point?" and you are all still hanging on my every word until I get to said point.

Now that I have mentioned the first three words again, you are all thinking, "so he hasn't forgotten, so really...what IS his point".

My point thus far? Well, its that I actually did listen to myself in that "seminar" and I have now drawn you into this entry like a juicy steak on a free buffet.

Yes. I just analogised (go figure! that's actually a word!) myself with juicy steak.

But yes, people fascinate me. (*sigh* oh here he goes)...

***

When I am feeling particularly melancholic (for that word is the flavour of the month), I start thinking about people, networks, the whole six degrees of separation thing. Actually I don't, because that theory is far too organised for my mind.

No, I tend to think about it on a more personal level.

Lets pick something mundane, something that you do everyday, when you meet someone you have never met before.

The shops.

Did you know the name of the last person who served you? What colour was their hair? What did they look like? Did you speak to them? Did they speak to you?

I know that the last time I was at a shop was the petrol station. A friendly old bloke served me, but I didnt speak to him, except to say "pump one" and "have a good evening". I don't know his name. I don't know anything about him. Except that he works in a place that charges me lots of money for dinosaur remains.

What about at school? You get to school, and you see a group of your friends. Automatically you know their name, you speak to them and they speak to you. And you know them well enough to even notice that they are wearing their hair differently, or its a different colour.

That nameless old bloke who served me has a network exactly like that. He has people that would come in and be like "Oh g'day Frank! What a surprise to see you. Are you dealing with it all okay, mate?".

Frank, as he has now been dubbed, has an entire network of people who know him, and know the details about his life. Maybe Frank's wife of 25 years just died, maybe his dog is in surgery, maybe he is working to pay off a gambling debt.

Who knows.

But it makes you think.

Well, it makes me think anyway.

You walk down the street, and every person that you see out in their gardens, driving their cars, tiling their roofs. All those children playing on the streets, the lone teen walking headdown with earphones jammed in, the elderly couple relaxing on their front verandah taking stock of the world around them.

Each one of those people is unique. They know where the weeds grow in the garden, they know the story behind the ripped car seat cover, they know what caused the tiles to break. The kids know the intricate details about the game they are playing, the lone teen knows the source of his sadness, and the elderly couple have decades of history they know about each other.

Each one of these individuals, people you have never met, people you may never see again in your lives, have a network. A mindbogglingly complex network. These people all have their own problems, their own personal adversity. They have an intricate knowledge of their history - the people that have shaped them, the people that mean the most to them, the events that stick clearly in their minds.

Just think about that the next time you go through a checkout.

And thats just for one person.

Apply that to your family. Your brother. Your sister. Your cat's crazy social life.

Apply it to the people in your street. The hundreds of screamy little kids next door. The couple who live a few houses up that are forever looking for their dog (stupid yappy little thing...).

Apply it to the people in your suburb. That overly friendly political candidate vying for community support at the local shops.

Apply it to your region.

Your city.

Your state.

Australia.

Bangladesh.

The Middle East.

The world.

Earth eh?

Its a pretty big place. For such a tiny spec in the universe.

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

-Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy