Friends Will Be Friends

Today, I had a sudden epiphany while emailing my friend. She lives on the other side of the planet, yet we talk nearly every day. In fact, she's not the only one - I have lots of friends in irritatingly inaccesible locations, many of whom I have not seen in nearly five years, some not at all (yet!).

And the weird thing is, it doesn't seem to matter. Whether I'm chatting with Miriam about Doctor Who, cosplay and the benefits of beanbags, laughing at Cloud Strife's ridiculously spiky hair with Abby, or terrorising fictional personages in my conversations with Cathryn Leigh, the distance, our difference in backgrounds and ages ... it doesn't matter.

The world is full of over 6 billion people, and that number rises every day. Think how special someone has to be in order for someone else to want to pull them into their lives, share their hopes and dreams and climb up their legs during scary movies. What sort of instict drives us to put so much trust in someone who - to so many others - would be a complete stranger?

Friendship, in all its shapes and sizes, conquers everything. Distance, age, gender, background, faith, invasions of purple Martian turtles.

And here, my friends, is something that shows exactly what I mean far better than my soppy, waffly words ever could.

- Charley R