Last week, Sylvia and I attended a gathering of my high school class. It has been 61 years ago that we graduated, and now we meet each year. Of the 60 plus grads, most of us are still alive. A couple choose not to attend our gatherings and profess no interest in fellow classmates.
Interestingly, folks who were not close during our school days (daze) who were not particularly close, truly enjoy each other’s company now. Talk is of children (some of whom are already retired), grands and great grands. At least one has great great grands. Catalogs of ailments, aches and pains are also compared.
On the way back home, my thoughts turned to the nature of friendship. From here, it looks like the bonds are friendship are forged from matters held in common. Those matters could be goals, achievements, experiences, commitments, etc.
Some of my younger friends talk of “doing life together.” Perhaps that is, in fact, the very essence of friendship.
What is your view of friendship?
True friendship is as was mentioned….time can pass with no contact, yet when you do meet up again, it is as if you’d just talked yesterday!! We have friends from high school also….52 years ago! They are the diamonds in our lives. Truly, truly valuable. PS: LOVE the pic of you and Sylvia!!! Beautiful!
I really liked this post, Chuck. I think one measure of friendship is that either person could call the other for help and they would show up. Another is that even if you don’t talk for a few months, the conversation picks right up where you left it.
Good friends are hard to find.
What a beautiful picture of you and Sylvia !!…Starting out by making friends in a one room country school seemed to be easy…we were all friends.It was amazing. . But then going to two different high schools, it was a different story. It was a small town high school followed by a large city high school. So, that was a different story. ! Some of my best friends were made in college and in church attendance. Having common interests and goals helps a lot, but it’s always interesting to meet with those who have different ideas and opinions. I do cherish all my friends from the past and those in the present.
Some friends whom I virtually never get to see are even so very valuable elements of my life. You know who I mean.
Love the picture, and miss visiting with you two. Hope I can figure out a way to see you yet this year. I can be friends on several different levels. Sometimes all it takes is mutual survival. An awful lot of the 51 in my high school class are gone.
It is true, friendship can have a foundation of mutual interests, yet when interests change, it does not mean the end of a friendship. The converse is not always true either. An acquaintance (no relationship) in HS, but now this person testifies to common interests such as you mention but I still don’t care one whit to listen to him. My best friend at this time is Catholic (I’m a Methodi, as he puts it). He is wealthy—I’m not even well off. He’s into yoga & golf as pass-times and wouldn’t get his hand dirty in the garden or fixing stuff. He is well informed on politics…I’m politically illiterate. Nevertheless, he and I would meet each other’s needs if at all possible. So at my age, a friend is one who cares, listens and who are mutually “there for each other.”
I agree…I think you need a common thread in any friendship…otherwise, what do you talk about all the time? For me, friendship also has to have a little space. The people I like best are those long-term friends that I don’t need to see or talk to every week or month. I like to catch up every so often, comparing notes on adventures or happenings in our lives. That prevents current events from creeping into the conversation. It keeps us friends, I think.
Glad you had a nice visit with your friends! How nice that you still have that group!