Jumping ship...

It seems that someone jumped ship last night.
"Jamaica?"

"No, he or she went of her own accord."

I’m not sure which Facebook friend it was, but that’s one more down without the need to cull.

Of course, it’s fair enough and I can see the attraction in getting out. Jumping ship must be such a liberating experience. One minute you have duties, tasks, and responsibilities. The next you are either in the water swimming like hell or in an open boat madly searching for that desert island you’ve always dreamed of - unless of course you can’t row or swim.

But enough of Davy Jones, his locker, and watery graves.

Anyway, I was carefully examining my friend list looking for the absconder when I found that a number of friends have jumped the Facebook ship altogether and closed their accounts. I hadn’t noticed this before, but apparently they appear in my friends list but they aren’t really there. I wonder where they’ve gone? Are they sunning themselves under a palm tree on some island paradise where the only form of technology is two half-coconuts and a piece of string, or did they go for a swim and then decide to never get out of the water?

As I said: I understand. Sometimes I feel like jumping Good Ship Facebook too.

Of course my track record at jumping ship isn’t very good. I usually stay aboard even when the ship is sinking. Jobs, relationships, lost hopes, failed enterprises – I find it so hard to jump and save myself that usually I have to be pushed; and pushed pretty hard at that. I guess I’m a clinger. Clinging to things I no longer want or, even worse, that no longer want me. Yes, I’d be there on the upturned cello long after the ship had gone down looking for the rest of the orchestra so that we could get the band back together.

Letting go is so hard. That’s why I find unfriending so difficult. I don’t like completely giving up on anyone, even the people who have closed their accounts, the ones who haven’t posted for years, even the friends that have died.

It poses the question: ‘Why don’t I leave them alone?’ After all they aren’t doing any harm are they?

Pipe me aboard chaps.