Knowing Another Person, Friendship, and Email

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I must sadly agree with you that no one can ever know the depths of another person. Parents of teens often discover this unhappy fact, asking, "What planet is she from?"

And, clearly, it is possible to know another only in a limited way via a relatively "crude" mechanism such as email. We might come to know an honest person sixty to eighty percent through regular emails, and emails tend to be sporadic rather than regular.:)

That's not so bad, really, when you consider that, with face-to-face, regular, interpersonal interactions with a person, you might come to know her only sixty to seventy percent, especially if she is an "enclosed" type.:)

So, email is an adequate tool after all. Of course, you cannot know the secret heart of the heart of a person unless she chooses to reveal it in words, with email. And even if she makes this choice, and tries, misunderstanding is still possible. For words are not perfect tools, especially for the expression of deeper realizations and sentiments, as is proved by Love-poetry, which seeks to express the deepest, but often fails, but still expresses feelings of great beauty.

As in most cases of friendship, however true, there might remain that unknown twenty to forty percent. Maybe it will never be revealed.

Happily, even the very best friendship does not depend upon one hundred percent knowing of the other friend!:) All that is necessary for two people to become, and to remain, friends, is for the both of them to express the desire to form, and then to maintain, that friendship. (Maintenance includes fairly regular emails and/or calls. It can also include cards, ecards, visits, and even small gifts when appropriate.)

The most valuable purpose of emails is that it can bring together two heartminds, who can explore what they share, or would like to share, in common. This is why email enriches our lives with so much fun! (It can be even a Lovexpression.)

So, there are things about you that I do not know, and things about me that you do not know. But that is not a regrettable thing; it can be the motive that keeps a friend interesting.:):)
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