Colliding Worlds! Gary

"Don't do it, you're not going to like the answer" said my wiser, more patient Better Half.  I didn't see the harm in asking, and although I was privately hoping for a different result, I knew she was probably right.  I promised her I wouldn't take it personally.

I was contemplating 'friend requesting' my younger, iconoclastic daughter on my new "Facebook" account. New to this online world of sharing thoughts, salutations, congratulations, and in some cases, almost "play by play" accounts of one's daily life, I had to admit I was, surprisingly,  enjoying it.   Any communication from our older daughter at school is always a ray of sunshine, even if her most recent addition had been informing me that my attempt to add to someone's page was off the mark and on my own page. I also had to admit it was fun to see something that a friend had written on my 'wall', especially all the Italian friends I hadn't seen in years.  (Apparently Facebook is very popular in the Old Country. I laughed at the irony of an amico's malaprop welcoming me to "faceboob".)

So with the miniscule number of just 34 friends in my stable, I cautiously sent out the request to daughter number two to become my facebook 'friend' and allow mutual windows into our semi-private worlds.  I waited....and waited...

A day later, I received a text sandwiched around friendly and innocuous mini-conversations about what time the NFL playoffs were on. Out of nowhere came a short reply that read...."By the way Dad, I will not be accepting your friendship on facebook. Like in the old Seinfeld episode, some worlds are not meant to collide. Hope you'll understand". 

So my wife was right....like she almost always is, although I really didn't mind the answer. While I may have enjoyed the privilege of my own window into my 18 year old's world, perhaps it's not one that she chooses to share, or one that I should be a part of. I can live with that.  I've finally begun understanding more about family solar systems and the necessity, in some cases of space and time.  Some planets have orbits that stay very consistently close to the sun while others venture out and seem far away, only to return back, over time if you're patient.   It's the order of things, unless something big gets in the way and collides.