Day 2: Acquaintances vs. Friends

Today was a Monday in RL… the first weekday since my banishment.  It was quite an eye-opener. 

I maintain a page over at SLProfiles.  I have made quite a few “friends” there over the past year or so.  I posted information about my banishment for all my friends, asking for their understanding and support.  It was no surprise to any of them that I have been working through a few things (SL things, but affecting RL nonetheless… I’ve found it purely impossible to divide the emotions between the two lives).   I suspect that most who volunteer for the Banishment Program are working through something.  What ~was~ a surprise was some of the responses I received…

M.H. “It’s [Banishment] her fantasy and her fun. She has just picked it over us here on SLP and from the sound of it all her other friends in SL as well. I never will understand things like this but better it happening on line than in RL.”

S.L. “but i[n] fact you don't care what i'm thinking and what I'm feeling..

thanks Trinity


bye”

Granted, my entry into Banishment was relatively sudden and I did not expect all my friends to understand completely.  I never expected my friends to understand… but I did think they would at least be supportive of me, if not of what I was doing.

M.H.’s response was not totally unexpected as our “friendship” was based on the most superficial of terms.  It was only natural that he would be upset that he would not be getting any more out of it.

S.L.’s response was a bit more striking… we had been “friends” for months.  Clearly someone would not enter the Banishment Program for “fantasy” and “fun.”  She knew I have been having issues to work through.  Nonetheless, by the end of the day, she had removed all my postings to her in SLP, ejected me from her SL modeling group and removed me as a friend in both places.  In a span of hours, it was as if our “friendship” never existed at all.  Ridiculous, but her choice.

For me, it was a surprising breath of fresh air… beginning to learn who my true friends are… and who have been just acquaintances… and the differences between the two:

Acquaintances may not understand you, and will not care about you as a result

Friends may not understand you, but will lend their support to you nonetheless.

 

Acquaintances can be selfish

Friends are selfless

 

When storm clouds form overhead, acquaintances will drift towards fairer weather.

Friends will stand by you with an umbrella.

As for friends... thank you, Miss Dani, for your comment on my blog.  You made my day. :)

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Oh, and as for being a Bane?

It ~is~ hard… and lonely.

My custodian received its first update today.  An hour has been added to my sentence for protocol violations… one of which was sitting on a swing in a park.

“Try harder T-6101”

*sighs*