It’s Friday evening, after an unremarkable week. The children are fast asleep upstairs, and “Water for Elephants” is playing on the television. The clock just ticked past eleven, I’m the last person up in the house, and a busy weekend is stretched out ahead of us.
If I will remember this week for anything, it will be because I’m back in touch with a wonderful friend on the other side of the world. We knew each other back when the world wide web was young, and rather strangely have never met in the real world. We missed each other by one day in the Napa Valley in California seven years ago - I have never forgotten it, or been allowed to forget.
The reason for our years long loss of contact has been simple - life. Getting married, having children, going to work, doing chores, running here, there, and everywhere… It was easy to lose touch, and we did. The John Lennon quote about “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans” was never so true.
It’s funny, but the appearance of an old friend in a webcam window in the dead of night, typing at the keyboard as we did a decade ago (because I couldn’t figure out how to get the microphone working) suddenly wiped away the cares of the world. Swapping stories of our children, friends, family, and perhaps most importantly ourselvesfelt like shining a light where there had been dark for a long time.
It’s easy to become wrapped up in everybody elses life - your children, family, friends, and even co-workers - and lose sight of yourself. Smiling across half the world with somebody I knew beforechildren, beforefamily, and beforeco-workers reminded me how important realfriends are. The ones we make on our own, because we like each other - not because our children play together, or we want anything from each other, or we sit in the same office.
I’m sat here smiling while writing this, and having trouble finding the worlds. Perhaps that’s an important part of it - friendship doesn’t need words. Friendship just needs two people who like each other.