Scrolling through my Facebook page, I see the pictures of two friends, both from our teaching days. One, a wonderful librarian. The other, an English teacher. Seeing their smiling faces recalls good times. Then, “Oh, but they are both dead, one from Covid, one from cancer.”
I move the cursor to delete the first picture and click. I am not asked, “Do you want to remove this picture from your list?” No, I am asked, “Do you want to unfriend this person?”
In all these years, the act of unfriending on Facebook never caused me to pause. Now I pause. Unfriend? I cannot unfriend friends. They belong here. Their smiles are kindle for my soul. I now imagine a day when half my Facebook friends are gone, except for their smiling faces here on my Facebook friends list. And what about my picture? It too, will be caught one day in this digital time warp, perhaps the beginning of neo-humanity. That’s a thought we can have fun with.