Making Friends...

It is one of the sad facts of living 'on the road' that there are many places along the way you might like to linger a little while longer. This is especially true when it comes to meeting people whom you wish you could get to know more closely. Developing personal relationships with these new friends can be difficult when you're bouncing from city to city, week after week, year after year. Even in our modern 'information age', what with all the opportunity for fast, easily accessible and cheap modes of communication (read: internet, e-mail, cell phones, text messaging, etc.), developing these new relationships becomes nearly impossible from afar. I am convinced that despite all our communications, the most basic face-to-face interaction -- the simple act of spending time with another person, is more readily lost. Perhaps that is, in part, why I've taken to starting this blog. Budding friendships require alot of 'face time' to really move from the level of 'acquaintance' to a deeper, more meaningful personal relationship. Maybe a renaissance of handwritten correspondence is at hand to help bridge this gap (?). In the meantime, we have our blogs, our cell phones, our text messaging, our e-mail and video-conferencing, and whatever else technology brings our way to help feed our need for human interaction. At any rate, this is all brought to mind because of a chance encounter of mine during our tour's Nashville stay. It is always refreshing to meet people who aren't on tour with you, and who aren't necessarily a regular part of the insular microcosmos that is the tour itself. For me, that breath of fresh air came in the form of a friend of a friend, of whom I became particularly fond very quickly. Ashley is a great person, and one with whom I would have liked to spend more time with. But regardless of that, our encounters this past week help me focus on the positive attributes of those people already around me, and on the priceless value of good friends. All of these observations probably hold true, whether on tour or not. So, go out and meet some new friends,and let the ones you have now know how much you value their friendship. Here is Melanie (on the left) clowning around with Ashley (who is being a bit shy):