"Around the Corner," Around the World?

I stumbled across this poem while reading a book of American poetry that, until recently, had been collecting dust on the shelf. It grabbed my attention immediately, and I began to think about how relevant it is to my own life...

"Around the Corner" (Charles Hanson Towne)

Around the Corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friend's face,
For life is a swift and terrible race.

He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine but we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim
Just to show that I'm thinking of him."

But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner, yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir,"..."Jim died today."

And that's what we get, and deserve in the end:
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

I know. It's meaning seems simple enough; however, my own experiences tell me that this poem, its meaning, is more relevant today than ever before. With social networks blossoming all over the place and people making contact with others sometimes thousands of miles away, I wonder how much attention we are placing on those who are "around the corner." In the past 15 years, I have lost touch with numerous friends. Some have moved away. Some of us have merely grown apart. And yes, in some cases, there have been fallings out. There are others, though, to which these categories do not apply. I look over my list of Facebook friends or Twitter friends, and I realize that many of them are people with whom I have reestablished contact because of these social sites. Some of them are far away...some are nearby. All are friends. But then, I realize there are friends of mine who live just down the road, seemingly, to whom I have not spoken in months, or even years. Why is that? They are still friends, yet what I have done to maintain that friendship? I spend countless hours online, messaging friends via Facebook, or updating friends via Twitter, or emailing someone who lives halfway around the world. Yet, rarely do I find myself taking the time out of my day to stroll to a friend's house and say hello. I think social network sites are amazing. They serve to establish connections, reestablish friendships, and they also provide information and entertainment. We must be wary, however, not to let ourselves become so absorbed with them, that we lose the intimacy of human contact.

Dow Chemical has been running commercials talking about "the human element." The commercials are appealing because they touch on the one thing that seems to be lacking for much of us...the human element. We spend so much time working, running errands, paying bills, chatting online, that we often neglect what may be the simplest, yet most meaningful part of human existence: establishing and maintaining a connection with another.

My pledge is to spend a little more time with those friends whom I may have neglected through the years. To get to know them. To reestablish that human contact so many of us are lacking. To rediscover the "human element."

True friendships are easy. They require little to maintain. Have coffee with an old friend. Today. Before bad news has a chance to come. I have to believe that it will make you, the friend, the world, that much closer.