RIP Adam (and thoughts on virtual friends).

TL;DR: I lost someone important to me���someone I���d never met before.

I never actually knew Adam. ��From the earliest days of my writing he was a champion of my work – cheering me on and chatting with me about my characters of AIM (yup, that old gem). ��He was wonderfully weird and felt deeply about things. ��Ten years younger and a world apart from me, we led different lives and our overlap began to stretch when I moved overseas.

Yesterday, via social media, I learned he had passed. ��I looked at my small screen in shock. ��I then began digging through past entries on various social outlets and thinking back to the last conversation we had. ��Could I have done more? ��Why did I let our friendship lapse?

The thing is, there are lot of people we interact with virtually. ��People we have never met and may never meet. ��The thing that was different about Adam was that I fully expected to run into him one day and share a meal or a beer with him. ��I have a list of people that I regularly think of and hope the best for. ��I think this incident was a wake up call to be more active with all my friends – virtual or present.

And, even if we are not close, dear follower, please know that I am ALWAYS around to listen.