A Dedication to my online friends

Just a few days ago I went to a memorial for a long time friend of my boyfriends. His friend’s name was Robert Boone. Or Boone as his childhood friends, colleagues and students knew him. Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. But that evening, I heard an over whelming number of personal accounts of who this Boone person was.

At an attempt to summarize, he was immediately a friend upon your first meeting without judgment or prejudice; he was admired and sought after by everyone, adolescent or adult, for advice, an ear to listen, or a million and one facts about everything under the stars and beyond.

When you walked into the auditorium, there were 2 large screens on either side of the stage with a slide show presentation that contains pictures of him from his Facebook Page. In the days that followed his sudden, completely unexpected passing you could go to his page and see a staggering amount of comments posted. These posts were part of the slide show presentation along with his pictures.

The first part of the memorial was 5 students who were reading out loud each and every post. There were two musical presentations by the students playing songs demonstrating not only the influence that he had over them when it came to teaching them about English or drama but music as well. The first song was, “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey and the second song “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd.

Speeches were also heard from his fellow teachers. Just like the students, he befriended them quickly, would always take the time to speak to them for hours sometimes making them feel like they were the only person that mattered at that moment in time.

The third group of speakers were his personal friends. People that he’d known as far back as 2nd grade. He had touched them all in the same exact way. “Always positive” always giving of himself. According to one account, many of them had recently reconnected on Facebook. Of course there were apprehensions of all the horror stories heard about Myspace and all the b.s. that goes on there but after a lot of convincing from those already on, many joined and reconnected. There was excitement and much talk about doing a reunion. A Reunion that finally took place after Boone died.

Aside from the intense admiration and love that was felt by an auditorium full of a few hundred people there to remember and celebrate the way he’d touched each and every one of them. A good part of my fascination was with the main media that was used to create this memorial. The people that were there and how it was put together was in large part made possible by Facebook.

We all have our personal lives to live whether it be the job, the kids or whatever, it only takes a few minutes to sign on and see that it’s this one’s birthday, that that one’s kid is doing something amusing or amazing, that the other has had a loss or is very happy. But one of the flaws of these Social Networking sites is that even though we may post comments and send each other wacky little applications, we’re still shying away from the actual human contact. We promise each other to get together but it’s so easy to be flakey online. I am also very guilty of the flake factor myself.

I am very happy to see everyone that I have come in contact with on one level or another all in one place. There are still a few missing but I am still happy none the less. I wish I could have a party and have all these people from the different stages of my life together in one place interacting with each other. The people from Edison, Pace, IFAC, Educating Hands, Sony, Hop A Jet, my family and all those other little odds and ends where I know people from.

I’m grateful to Myspace AND Facebook for re-establishing my bond with my friend John, allowing me to hang out a few times with Ray (including seeing Ron Jeremy at Tootsies), to spend a weekend with my college pal Christine in New York, fly to Puerto Rico for a weekend with my IFAC ex-boyfriend Oz and his girlfriend (now fiancé) Denise, party with Yesenia & Ilvis for Ilvis’s Birthday at Lips, spend a night of downing a couple bottles of wine while talking until 4 am on the eve of my birthday with Marilyn on an Avon run, giving me a way to tell my aunt in Puerto Rico that I love her when the mood strikes, to find a brother I never knew in New York, to be able to see and apologize for being an ass to the person who I learned how to be a woman from Annette, to connect my high school best friend Maggie with my ex-coworker and one of the rocks during my recent lows Maylin, to gain a high school friend Ivette as a Avon Sales person by connecting her to my college friend Christine, to be able to share musical obsessions with Tasha, joke around with Alex and Lety and receive beautiful thoughts and sentiments from Jacky, Joseph, Lily and Lisa, to be inspired to live life to the fullest by Jeffrey, Pokes from Liz, agree on politics with Raiza & make sex jokes with Zully and well the list can go on and on and on.

What I don’t want is for it to take place “Big Chill” style as this memorial did. That it took the passing of this person to bring all those people together in one place. Facebook is a very powerful tool that if you know how to take advantage of can bring so much to your life.

In the last few months, there have been 3 that have passed on. My cousin’s wife Nancy, My sister’s friend Ileana (both from Lung Cancer) and my boyfriend’s friend Boone. It’s a little scary when the people in your age group start dropping like flies and you’re not even in your 40’s yet. All of these people that were taken were amazingly good people and way too young. It is so easy to take each other for granted. To just assume that if I don’t post anything today or i.m. or email or god forbid call someone, that I can always do it later. But sometimes later never comes. What does come is the feeling of guilt. “I should have…” or wish “I had…”

Don’t wait till it’s too late. All those hours slaving at work, full-filling obligations can never replace the time that could have been spent like this person Boone did. What would start as a Hello Boone, would end up in a 3 hour conversation just hanging out talking about everything and anything face to face. No matter how many things he had going on; he always had time to talk. And based on what I saw that evening, that one soul made a difference to a few hundred people who will take the time he gave and pay it forward to others in the same way making a lasting difference, a legacy that will live on.

I didn’t know you Robert Boone but as Scott says, I would have loved you and I have no doubt in my mind about that. And even in death, I who have never even met you have also been inspired by you. And for that I thank you.

ll live. Don’t take any moment of your life for granted. Plan a get together and stick to it. Live, share and love like it’s the last day of your life. And thank you all for being a part of mine.