Old friends

It seems like every blog post that I make leads to the next one to clarify or muse on something that I said. So far I think that's a good thing, at least until I have some kind of conversation going on here, which I hope will eventually happen.

In yesterday's blog I said that I had no friends from kindergarten. I lied, however. Not long after I made this statement, I got tempted into the following Facebook meme:



Of course, as soon as I'd posted this I remembered that Eliyahu (then known as Alan) and I did indeed go to kindergarten together, back in 1966 or so. Our parents were friends then and are friends now. Their connection has kept ours alive when circumstances of life would otherwise have severed it - since we moved away from that place when I was six, I do not even remember the names or faces of anybody else I went to kindergarten with.

We have led very different lives, but we do have in common a constant searching and questioning, leading us to wander through places, religious commitments and friendships, proverbial and literal mountaintops. As we approach the half century mark, still searching and questioning, who knows what we will become when we finally grow up?

I am glad that Facebook has made it easy for us to reconnect. Watching those whom I knew when they and I were younger (not only Eliyahu, but my friends from university in the Netherlands, my beloved March96 family and others) as they grow, mature and become more and more themselves, is a precious gift for which I am very grateful.

What old friends are you grateful for?