The Sublime Nature of Friendship

I've been missing many of my friends whom I haven't seen or heard from in a many year. I'm very happy to have gotten in a touch with some of them over the past couple years. And more recently through the power of the internet I have come back into contact with even more friends. I'm not talking about high-school chums but some of the most interesting people I have known. And somehow, through life, you go your separate ways and lose track of each other and wonder, "What the hell happened?" Sometimes it feels like a Talking Heads song (your choice of song but you probably know the one I mean.) But I'm glad to see that these friends are still alive and vital. And all these people who I have come back into contact with, well, it's quite amazing, the changes that have occurred, how different they are from ten or fifteen years ago. Yet, when talking to them it's as if no time has passed, expect there are new topics of conversation that were quite impossible years ago, children in some case, or the internet or even blogging.

There have been times when I thought my desire to still know these prodigal friends was a sign of an impending midlife crisis but the more I think of it the more I realize that is not the case. It's sublimely human to love our friends, wish them well and know they are there to talk to (or email), exchange ideas and thoughts with and to know that the bonds of friendship last. So I cannot quite express what a joy it is for me to know my friends and I hope to know them for a very long time.