Ummm...NOT the last of the 'friendly' posts

So, if you reach a stage where you look at your contact book (mental/offline/online), and realise that many of those in it are no longer your 'friends', and you don't really know what's happening with them, what are your options?

Well, you could shrug and concede that life is full of shite like this, and downgrade your hopes and expectations into - the chance occasional meeting, getting your updates about them through once-in-a-way group mails, gossip from mutual contacts, and their social network listings.

Or, you could take the view that some of this is partly your fault too, because you too are someone's 'lost' friend. And so you make an effort to call/text/e-mail/meet/chat with a select group of such friends, on a more regular basis, for a given trial period. Try to be more involved and aware of each others' lives. Find ways to meet socially, even if in the midst of large groups. And if all that works, then continue it with those friends, and include more friends slowly.

Or, you could just say - the heck with it. The friends I have today are the friends I really want, and need. Take everybody else off your 'regular contact' list, and social network groups, and just be involved with those few. Everybody else remains somebody-you-once-knew-well.

And then go find new friends. Just so you can repeat the process....nobody said life had to make sense, did they?

...
I'm edging towards option three. Simply because I suspect that while I'm quite capable of keeping up with - and taking a keen interest in - my friends' lives if I can meet them regularly, I somehow can't build up the energy to do this long-distance thing with everybody. 'Tis a pity.