Friendships Over Time

I am so lucky to live in the city where I grew up. It means that I have several friendships that are counted in decades now and I appreciate that continuity so much. Last night, one of my friends from high school who left the area 14 years ago came back for a visit, and three of my high school friends and I had dinner together. While three of us still live in the area, the last time this foursome had dinner together was over 8 years ago.

At that time we were all in our early 30's. All of us were focused on our jobs, only two of us were married, and only one of us had children. My how eight years changes things. As a group, we are turning 40 over the next few months, we are all married now and three of the four of us have stopped working to raise kids.

But you know with old friends, time doesn't really pass. Our conversations started as if they had never ended. Our questions of each other's present are deeply rooted in our knowledge of each other's past and we laughed as we shared the ups and downs of our current lives. With old friends there is no awkward pause while someone searches for a safe topic. The topics are all taboo: Politics, Money and Religion. While the view points may have changed over time, no one minds. We so deeply respect each other today, our differences are amusing, not insulting.

We laughed last night that the only things that have changed since high school is that the we didn't have to pilfer the liquor from an unsuspecting parent, the topics of wrinkle prevention and spider veins are exceedingly relevant and the advice sought is about out of control pre-schoolers, not wayward boyfriends. We also marveled that if another 8 years passes before we get together for dinner as a four-some again, our lives will change that much more. We ended the evening vowing to each other not to let so many years pass before we dine together again.