Imaginary Friends

I have just discovered tonight that somebody is reading my Blog! I just assumed that I was talking to myself and so will have to be a bit more careful. It's a funny feeling the idea that you don't know who your audience is or where they are but in fact it is the usual situation for anyone in public life. You never know who is listening.
When the internet was very young I was a university chaplain in Huddersfield, I did alot of counsellling. Quite often i would ask people to draw a picture of the network of supports that surrounded a peson. One of the people I cared for drew their picture and then said what was baffling then: "Of course I don't really know their names or even their sex but they are some of my closest friends."
Once I had discounted imaginary friends, not all that uncommon I have discovered, it turned out these were a part of a network group on the internet. When I quizzed the person about their friends they said: "It's easier to be close to someone you don't see."
These virtual friendships are part of all our lives now... on the whole I think we are better for them but i still worry that they offer fulfilment in a kind of safe intimacy, which we should rightly find in the very unsafe intimacy of love.