I remember the day I realized my Facebook friends consisted of old and new friends, colleagues, and family. My initial reaction was one of horror and despair. The horror was in realizing being myself with one set of “friends” might not be as well understood, or as welcome, by those who were in another set of my “friends.” I was paralyzed, but only momentarily.
Since then I’ve come to accept (or should I say I’ve come to realize my “friends” must accept) the diversity of relationships and viewpoints we all have. Perhaps it is partly because I am not at the beginning of my career, but much closer to the end, and – therefore – I have little need to worry about impressing an HR department. My professional experience is long and varied, running the gamut from very small (2-3 employees) businesses to large (100K plus employees), multi-national corporations. My accomplishments stand on their own and, besides, my main interest is in small business now.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t wish to offend anybody, but I really don’t want to worry too much about somebody not agreeing with or liking what I have to say. If you are a friend of mine, it means I find something valuable in what you have to offer. If we all thought alike, how would we learn anything . . . ever?
So, please forgive me if I offend. My political and religious views are far from mainstream, but I’ve arrived at them through many years of thought, study, and introspection. I am probably far more aware of the intricacies of mainstream thought than others are aware of those I adhere to, yet I have lived quite comfortably with them. I hope you’ll do the same for me. Can’t we all just get along? =;^D
Systems Savvy 
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:20 pm
[…] while back I wrote about the dilemma I faced when I first realized my Facebook “friends” consisted of […]
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October 5th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
[…] think a change is in order. I think I need to write about all the things I care about. I have also previously written about the dilemma I faced when I realized the disparate “friends” I had on Facebook and […]
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May 22nd, 2011 at 10:12 pm
What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of various subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what i can only describe as an fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly you got it. The combining of demonstrative and upper-class content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs on the cyberspace.
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May 23rd, 2011 at 10:53 am
Thank you, whoever you are, for the effusive praise. While I am somewhat suspicious of this comment, and Askimet flagged it as spam, I am leaving it here because it doesn’t quite fit the model of virtually all the spam I get on my blog. I’m afraid I don’t quite believe my writing is either rare or skillful, the lack of spelling and grammatical errors in your comment is indicative, to me, of its genuineness. Therefore, I haven’t removed it. I hope you have subscribed to at least this thread and will come back and tell me more about yourself. The link I was taken to tells me little, as I don’t read Cyrillic. Thanks again. Very high praise, indeed.
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May 2nd, 2011 at 1:43 pm
[…] https://rickladd.com/2011/05/02/whats-in-a-friendship/ […]
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May 2nd, 2011 at 10:45 am
Rick, thanks for this post! When I was first starting out on Twitter and Facebook, I considered having separate accounts to keep work and personal connections separate. I did not choose that route, and I am glad. It has been fun to see the intersection of relationships and personalities. Particularly on Facebook – sometimes friends from different circles comment on the same thread, and comment on each other’s post even though they have not met. Serendipity, openness, good stuff.
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May 2nd, 2011 at 11:15 am
Thanks, Trisha. I have always had a hard time separating (not entirely) my personal life from my professional life. When you dream of your work (and it’s not nightmares, but inspirational), you know you’re integrated. I’ve also heard and used the term “the personal is political” and I think they need to be integrated as well. As I move toward the final act of my journey, my intention is to present myself as a fully integrated human; personal, professional, political, and philosophical (and think the latter is better – at least for me – than religious, plus it carries the alliteration forward 😉
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