Rather unintentionally, I posted a profile on Facebook this afternoon. Actually, I'm glad I did. I'm rather over the hill for Facebook, but it almost immediately got me back in touch with some folks with whom I'd lost touch-a British seminarian I'd supervised when she was over here doing an internship (she's now a mom and a priest), my ex's son who lives in Argentina and owns a vineyard, a Match friend, several other friends, and His Grace, Archbishop Cranmer. It's phenomenal how well he keeps up with the Times (not to mention the politics of the Conservative Party).

These folks are now listed as "friends" on my Facebook profile.

That got me thinking-what is a friend? In my mom's day, it was a person you might nave met in grade school or perhaps college-or maybe a first job before one got married. Possibly it was a neighbor. For people my age, it could be, and is, my college roomate, a neighbor or someone I met at work or in church.

But having friends one meets solely through electronic media (or in a purely spiritual way, in Arcbishops Cranmer's case) both widens and constricts the possibilities of a deep friendship. I'm interested to see what I will learn from my Facebook "friends" old (very old) and new...