Day 112 - Get a Fake Buddy

Date: April 28th, 2010

You know what they say - money doesn't buy happiness.  I understand why people say that.  I mean, you can't buy the sun.  Well, ok, you can take a tropical vacation, so that's a bad example.  You can't buy serenity.  Wait.  No... I guess you can take a trip to the spa or hire a meditative guru to teach you how to let go.  You can't buy beauty.  Actually, duh... I mean, botox and plastic surgery beg to differ.  Well, I'm running out of things.  You can't buy friends... I mean, you can surround yourself with sycophants, but not people who just want to make you happy.  Except... that's no longer the case anymore either.

I found a website.  It's hilarious.  You can choose a fake buddy who will send you an e-mail chatting you up.  All you need to do is pick a buddy and fill out a little information about yourself and then BAM, flattering e-mails without all that cumbersome reciprocity.  Though, if you want your buddy to know your name, you need to pay $5.95 a month.  It vaguely reminds of me of a more appropriate version of pay by the minute phone lines, but that's neither here nor there.

My fake buddy's name is Fin and according to the website, he has a crush on me.  So that's nice.  I was surprised at how much information the site wanted to formulate its little e-mail note.  Don't worry - I'm not dumb - I didn't send my bank account number to a Nigerian prince.  What I meant is that the questions ranged from name to favorite TV show to top three holidays.  These are not things I had thought about before.  Needless to say, I chose Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

It was cute, but it felt hollow.  I suppose that was the lesson of the day.  I got thinking about how we try to replicate free things with money.  Remember how I said money couldn't buy the sun?  Well, it can't.  Taking a tropic vacation doesn't teach someone to close their eyes and feel the warmth of the sun.  And serenity?  Well, learning how to meditate or taking a relaxing weekend isn't the same thing as having true inner peace.  And as for beauty, the most beautiful people I know sure as heck didn't pay any money to cosmetically enhance themselves.  They're beautiful because they have beautiful souls.

And it turns out all that annoying reciprocity crap is what makes friendship so wonderful.  Sure, my fake buddy is super cute and whatnot, but I can't help him move or get dinner with him.  I can't throw him a party or celebrate when he graduates from college.  Those things are real.  Telling a website what my favorite three holidays are, well, that's not.