More Sad

Weird stuff's been happening lately. Most of it is so unrelated to opera that it doesn't appear here in the blog.

But now, something that I suspected might happen has happened, and I'm not surprised, as I would have reacted exactly the same way.

One of my opera friends, a regular reader of this blog, is several months shy of his 18th birthday. His mother found out we were friends and told him no, no, no. Now, this is a perfectly normal friendship, an innocent friendship, nothing smarmy or funky or whatever. The point is, we became friends over opera, before we knew each other's ages, because it just didn't matter. We became friends because of the music.

However, when Alex is 17, I'd be pretty freaked out if he were friends with a 41 year old woman. This friend's mother and I come from a generation of not having had internet as children and young adults. Not knowing how internet-savvy she is, she may not understand the types of innocent friendships that can form between unlikely people, such a teenage guy and an adult woman, over a common interest. All we hear about are the creepy relationships where minors are lured to hotels to be molested by creepy ... well by creeps. So I can totally understand where she's coming from, and although it makes me sad to put a friendship "on hold," I absolutely must respect her wishes. Like, as soon as I found out, I immediately terminated the conversation.

It's possible that this friend and I will continue to communicate publicly about music via comments on blogs, youtube videos and so on, however, I will not allow any direct interaction via chat or email.

So, to the mom of my opera friend, I hear ya, I understand, I respect your wishes. I'm a mom too. Your son is a kid I'm friends with. There's nothing inappropriate. So no worries, ok?