After a very active day at the RV Rally in Quartzsite, I got back to my campsite. The people I’ve been with had a campfire going. Everyone was relaxed, there were several conversations going at the same time, and everyone was having a very nice time. Michael Soloway, a fellow New Jerseyian, came over with his accordion. I had helped Michael install additional Solar Panels on his RV in my driveway, and we have been to several Rallies’ together. This was not your grandpa’s squeezebox. No EEEH AWWWW EEEEEH. This was the organ a Radio City Music Hall playing at our campfire. Michael’s music was nuanced, expressive and full of emotion. He has a job playing music at an upcoming International Film Festival in New York, and he was practicing on us. Everyone should be so fortunate to have him practice on them.
Music can be many things. On that night it brought me to other places and times. It made me think about friends and friendship. I’ve only known some of the people at the campfire for fewer than three years. Some I had only known for days, but there we were, immersed in friendship and camaraderie. I thought about old friends. At sixty seven, you may unfortunately be in a state where you have lost good friends. Some friends can be your closest buddies, but the move away, get married, have more responsibilities, and the dynamic changes. You don’t really stop being friends, but the urgency to see them, spend time with them, share your life with them, wanes. Other friends die. Others continue to be friends, and will be friends forever, but life, distance, obligations, allows you less time together. The wonderful part of forever friends is they transcend to being family, and even though there may be decades since you last saw them, you pick up and continue where you left off.
The last decade of my life has been tumultuous. As I approach the seventh decade of my life, it seems that there is a change. I appear to be in a place where I am making friends at a faster rate than I’ve lost them. I like it, and I wish you the same blessing.