You've Got Mail

For those of you who have never experienced the wonder that is "You've Got Mail" you are missing out on what could be a life changing movie. No, I don't mean to say that this movie will produce click-flick like occurrences in your life, I simply mean that this is one of those rare movies that can make you believe in Magic. The magic of love, or even of friendship. The magic that everything will be better if you let it all get better.
Magic. What a silly word, and yet, I believe in it.
Perhaps that is because I have had the rare opportunity to get to know someone via e-mails and chatting, like Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly. Now, please understand that I have met this person more than once. He also wasn't a total and complete stranger. A good friend of mine has known him (and still did know him when she introduced us) and suggested that I get to know him. At the time he was living in Las Vegas, Nevada and I was living in Midwest City, Oklahoma. I was extremely weary about the whole situation but not long after that I was communicating with him on a regular basis. So please, don't judge. It's a harmless friendship, he's not an ax murderer or the roof-top killer! ;D
I don't want this whole thing to be misconstrued, however. This young man and I are not anything but best friends and there is nothing to suggest that he and I would ever turn out like Joe and Kathleen do. I only want to somehow express the connection I feel to that movie.
At this moment and for the next year and two months, my friend will be halfway around the world serving a Mission for the LDS Church in the Philippines. On his mission he is allowed to e-mail a certain amount of people each week. (Some missions only allow missionaries to e-mail family members.) I know what it's like each Monday morning to wake up, get ready for my 8:00 am class, eat breakfast and then rush to the computer. I wait as it slowly wakes up and connects (rather quickly but too slow for my taste) to the internet. My fingers pretty much fly across the keyboard typing in my user name and password and then I see it. The ever impatiently awaited e-mail from my best friend. To quote the movie "Mr. 152 insights into my soul!" lol. I don't often have time at that point to read my e-mail but it is enough to get me up the massively large hill to campus and through my Biology class, which, is actually a very wonderful class but on Monday mornings I'd rather be reading my e-mail.
Forgive me for thinking this, and maybe it is a bit...well, silly, but I think that I respect and adore and cherish the relationship with this friend more than any other because I got to know him before I saw him. I learned that he likes to laugh and have a good time but he also likes to relax and chill. I love my friend for WHO he is and not WHAT he is. You see, I met him, (in person that is) about a year after we'd started to get to know each other. Never once had we seen each other before (except for in pictures on our Myspaces) but it didn't matter. He didn't judge me and decide that he didn't like me anymore because I wasn't pretty enough or thin enough or tall enough or whatever enough. He already knew me and I already knew him. It's a precious and wonderful thing to know that you have a friend who really and truly does see YOU beyond all the flaws.
I don't want to sound unfair to the rest of my friends because they see the real me too, but this is different. If you were blind and met someone for the first time, your initial reaction would be different then if you could see. First impressions, though important, don't always dictate how two people will relate, or not, to one another.
I don't know if any of this is making much sense but I felt the need to write it all down. I guess what I hope to pass along in this hardly-read-by too-many-others blog of mine is to see beyond the mask. Very Beauty and The Beast of me, I know but I think it is one of the most important lessons we can learn in life. The most beautiful friendships can come from it. So here is my challenge to you, which I don't frequently do because I feel too weird about it most of the time, experiment. Take someone you might only partially know, someone you may have judged too quickly, and get to know them. Or meet someone new. If you look around you, you'll realize that there are a lot of people out there who are around you everyday that you've seen but never really noticed before. Try it! See what happens.