My college posse is spread from Hawaii and Washington state to South Dakota, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, with one planted in Singapore.

We differed then and even more now. Three men, three women, multi-ethnic, late Baby Boomers with professional pursuits as different as peas and peppermint candy.

Individually, we had other friends. Together, we were as comfortable as slow-cooked grits.

We parted nine months after IBM introduced its PC, so just as desktop computing was going mainstream but almost exactly two years before Mark Zuckerberg was born.

I’ve talked with or met some of them occasionally in the decades since. With others, not at all – until a few days ago.

A newer tech wonder, video chats, brought us together.

Our digital gathering affirmed how friendship, to be truly meaningful, must be fully human, nurtured through togetherness and forged in the crucible of time. See “Facebook friending” for its bland and tepid contrast.

So, despite the years and the individual triumphs and stumbles and hurts, we slipped into comfortable chatter, friends still and again across 12 time zones for a blessed hour.