Stranger Blues

“. . .sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?"
“Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Its been many years since we all got onto the virtual world. Some of us out of curiosity. Some because we just wanted to see for ourselves what the rest were talking about.
I was sceptical at first...nervous because I never knew what to 'know' or how much I should 'know'. I clicked on the keys of the keyboard and what sounded like clicks at first slowly turned musical. The words typed themselves. The virtual world was thrown open to an individual, who believed that 'if you want to stay in touch with your friends, you need to make the effort.' I did just that. The friends brought in others who had dropped out of the planet, but were thrilled to be drawn in and find some smiling faces that they had left behind.
They were the familiar faces of my childhood- the ones who had hidden in the dark with me, the ones who I had shared secrets with. Some of them I had never imagined would ever go away. But go away they did..and they just remained as names. Some had held my hand through happy times, and some through those insane phases. They grew with me. I held on because in them I found peace.
This world somewhere conspired and brought in the yearning to jot down my insane thoughts, and with them came in a whole new world. They read what I wrote, commented, some felt for me, and some with me. Some came back and waited for more. In no time, the line between the stranger and friend dimmed. We shared, we laughed, we whined together. We understood. The only face I knew was the one on the screen in front of me, some stayed as flowers and cartoon characters they depicted. It didnt matter, I had already put a face to the words they spoke to me. The face spoke to me. Soon, some faces turned into friends we met, laughed and dreamt all over again.
Some I have yet to meet. Some I know I will not or might never meet. But they have all remained a part of my being. Of my growth as a human. One never knows how easily we slip into a conversation that we might never have with our own close ones. Its amazing how a person who was once a stranger suddenly means a lot to you...
What is it that makes the unknown so treasured yet so unpredictable?
I am still on this journey....