Rhonda.

The miracles of social networking sites. Bounty. While it is true that facebook is often the site of voyeuristic prowling and dormant friendships, it is also the site of regeneration, of old things that otherwise may have been no more. Last year, a friend from high school randomly sent me a message on facebook and asked me to meet her in Madrid. I did. What felicity.



Tonight, I was looking through old friends' pages on facebook and fell upon a certain Rhonda from my past. Rhonda was my very first roommate. We met 12 years ago. I was 17 years old and had left home with a vintage bike in a big airplane box and a bag of clothes. I was headed for college in Hawaii. Our first night together, Rhonda and I met and we knew our energies accorded. We dropped any unpacking that was to be done and ran to the beach at midnight, both diving into the water with equal mania and lack of concern for underwater creatures that might have been lurking there in the Hawaiin ocean.

I called Rhonda tonight. Rhonda is an incredible creature. Since I left Hawaii in 2000, Rhonda has stayed and made it her permanent home. She says, "If you have to choose one place to live for the life we have, why not make it Paradise?" Her logic is sound. Rhonda is now Jewish. She is also an acupuncturist and told me the first time she inserted a needle into someone's hand, she felt as if she had done it many times before. She has just married an Israeli who has also made Hawaii home. Their honeymoon was a five-month voyage to Germany, Greece, Israel, Jordan, India, Thailand, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Oh Rhonda, I love you. Thank you facebook for binding us once again, even if just in spirit for the moment.