I have become a dedicated “Facebook” follower. I check it regularly to see who has updated, what games are being played and what quizzes people take, such “how Episcopal are you” with the results of “faithful member”. For the uninitiated, facebook (FB) is a social networking site, where becoming “friends” with others on FB, allows the sharing of “posts”. Postings can be cheery little updates, “I am sitting on my front porch, with my first cup of coffee, enjoying the morning” to updates expressing grief at the loss of a pet or friend.

A friend on FB would probably not be defined the same way anywhere else. A friend on FB could be anyone from family members to “someone who knows someone that knows you”. It can get complicated.

FB while amusing, also occasionally is a glimpse of the pain or sadness into someone’s life. What than? How do you react to an apparent casual posting that speaks to the sadness in a person’s life? When they unwittingly reveal more of themselves than perhaps they intended? When a child writes of violence and fear, and the reader does not even know where the child lives? Is there a responsibility for those reading the postings to respond?

No man is an Island according to John Donne, and Donne penned that a couple of hundred years before FB. As our communities expand to include those we have allowed into our lives through the internet and social networking sites, so does our involvement with our fellow human beings. I guess I have to think it doesn’t matter how the “friendship” happened, whether a real, actual friend you go out to dinner with on a regular basis, or a FB friend. The connection has been made, that person has been included into your life. We are all dwellers of this big old world of God’s and when a hand reaches out or a FB “posting” calls out for help, we have no choice. Love one another as I have loved you. We know what we have do.