One Is Silver and the Other Gold

Today is going to be a treat. My oldest friend is in DC this week, and after having met her for dinner last night, she is coming to hang with me at my house this afternoon.

We met in the first grade. I was five, and we made it through eight years of parochial school together. We maintained our friendship despite different high schools in different states. Even after a rough patch in college we came out on the other side and haven't looked back.

The last time we saw each other, she and her mom had come to Tahoe specifically for LittleMan's baptism. LittleMan was only three weeks old at the time. Just a blob that leaked bodily fluid from every orifice. Now, he is two-and-a-half, an actual person. To say I am excited to go and pick her up from the train station in an understatement.

Both of our older children are just shy of the age we were when we first met. There is something very Circle of Life-esque about the whole thing. Unlike this friend, this one actually called me months in advance and made sure we had the chance to see each other.

The point of this rambling is that there is something to be said for friendships forged in childhood. They know you. They've seen the journey you've taken. You don't have to explain or justify. If someone has hung around for this amount of time, no matter how tough life is or how badly things have been going you know there is some spark to your personality that draws them back to you. In these transient times, that is a valuable lesson to remember.