Reach Out And Touch (24/4/13)

So, you know me well enough by now to know that, at times, this first bit will be a general preamble but that I will actually get round to the point that I intend to make at some point. 

You'll also now that I'm a little obsessed with the way that absolutely everything is interconnected, so even the preamble has a point. There are days like today where I'd get rid of it if I could and just cut to the chase but I can't help myself; it's as though I need a bit of a warm up to get my mind in gear. (That's it, isn't it, I've just figured myself out)

I didn't notice that yesterday marked the point where there's only six months until I hit 50. If I'd realised, I probably would have marked it in some tenuous but deeply philosophical manner but I didn't spot the fact until I was writing the date in work at half eight.

I was on a late yesterday. I'm on a late today. In last Sunday. 9 days in work out of the last 10. Tomorrow and Friday off then start the whole process again. I'm knackered.

But I've said that I'm only doing positives (I say it then look up and that gimp Osborne is on the telly and my blood starts to boil, but anyway....) and the universe keeps sending me interesting little moments.

At some point I'll get onto the fact that we are all energy, all made from the same material as stars and how we are all remnants of the same singularity at the point of the Big Bang and that's where the interconnectedness comes from but that's for another day.

For now. Facebook. That might seem a small subject but it does incredible things to you. Two days ago I received a friend request from an 'Elaine'. I didn't recognise the surname, obviously a married name, "is that Elaine...." (You'll notice I don't do surnames, they belong to other people, using them here would be presumptuous)

It was. A girl who lived at the other end of our road when I was younger (in fairness, there's a lot of time in my life when I was younger nowadays. All of it when you think about it) She was a year older than me, still is. She was in upper sixth when I was in lower sixth, she was part of the group that I moved in when I first learned to drink, there when I first managed to get into a club (1981 sometime, top floor of Rotters I think, Roxy/Bowie night) she was one of the cool girls in sixth form, into the right music, knew the right bands to listen to, ahead of the game, a good person.

I've probably not seen her since 1983ish. I knew her when I was 17. I knew her when I was the same age as our Tom will be on Friday. We lost touch years ago but the world now has this incredible tool where you can still reach the people that you used to know, everybody is still connected to everybody else, we can all still be in touch.

Like this;

I was out in Manchester with old, good friends a couple of weeks ago and the conversation turned to my blog. Obviously my raging ego meant that I was more than happy to talk about myself for as long as I was allowed. And the question was asked;

" What I need to know is, are you getting the band back together then?"

"No" I replied, "I can't see that happening, I can't see anybody biting and anyway I have no idea where the old singer is or how to find him."

Then last night I went on LinkedIn. I never use it, don't really see the need for it, it's like a boring Facebook where you're not allowed to swear. I was checking to see whether the guy that was interested in making a film out of 'Waltz' (it's in the blog, weeks ago, scroll down if you want the details) had been back in touch.

He hadn't, there were a couple of link requests which I accepted, one from a friend, on from an ex colleague (though I never actually worked with her) and then, on the right of the screen, was a suggestion of 'people that you might know' and the one name that was there was Mark's.

So, how does a computer programme connect me to a friend from the mid 80s? There are absolutely no links on there between the two of us. It's the universe throwing things into the mix, it's the fact that we are all absolutely interlinked at some fundamental level and that (as I keep saying) we never really lose anybody, they're always there, we just need to find our wa back to them.

The question now is what do I do with this?

There's a button on the screen that I can press to send a message. To get back in touch. Do I press the button? And if I do, what happens next?

Life's a weird thing at times. Bloody brilliant isn't it?