Thursday, March 12, 2009

My Friend Named Sam

Sam is a nice guy, I suppose. He grew up in Passaic, moved to Detroit, and lives there now. His father was the page number turned at Young Israel of Passaic/Clifton, and had a unique method for changing the magnetic page numbers. As the Chazzan approached the end of the page, he would slide the upcoming number onto the magnetic board, and slowly slide the number upward. As the Chazzan got closer and closer to the bottom of the page, the new page number would creep upwards, until finally, when the Chazzan reached th end of the page, the new numbers would be in place.

He married, divorced, and remarried. I think he has a son from his first marriage, not sure about what has happened in his second marriage. To be honest, I don't remember his wife's name, though I think it is her second marriage as well. And if I was to tell you everything I know about Sam, all I can really add is that I think he is touch older than me, that his mother passed away within the past year, and that he has one sister.

But sometime earlier this week, Sam friended me on Facebook. And being that I have nothing against Sam, I accepted his friendship. There was a time when I was very particular about who I accepted, but my standards have gone way down. There are people who collect facebook friends like baseball cards, trying to amass as many as they can, studying their information and reading their status updates. I am not that kind of facebook user. I like the platform for the games, and friends provide me with opponents to challenge.

So Sam, who is not really a friend, who I have had a complete conversation with him in the 14 years I have known him, and I are Facebook friends. He can see when I play Scrabble, Word Twist, Scramble, and update my status. He has access to pictures, and public conversations I have with other people.

Which brings us to March 15, 2009. Un-Friend Someone Day. The brainchild of Joe Hocheiser, the Ides of March is the day to get rid of your friends you don't really want. He wants you to get rid of at least one friend who you don't want.

So the question is, do I whack Sam, or find someone else who is not adding anything to my life.