One of the blessings of this week was a phone call with an old friend, a colleague from years ago. We caught up on each other’s lives, acknowledged the work we had done together and recognized that our connections of the heart cultivated long ago persist.
Each of us travels through life with cohorts. Circumstance brings us together but it is our choices and actions within those situations (or afterward) that create and sustain friendships.
Last weekend Peggy and I visited a college classmate and his partner. They surprised us with tickets to a Paul Stookey concert. Still writing songs at 78 and protesting the ascendance of our human failings, Stookey’s humor, insight and compassion seen in his days with Peter, Paul and Mary, triggered a chain of reflections that landed on this blog with a song from the same era.
Simon and Garfunkel’s Old Friends captures the wistfulness of this stage of life for me. Sung in their youth the lyrics anticipated a poignant marker: “Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy.”
Old friends come in two categories that sometimes coincide: the length of time we have known each other and the experiences shared; or the depth of the connection, like old souls who journeyed together in past lives.
Take a moment to enjoy the song and bring to mind your own friends. If you haven’t talked with them lately, it may be time to reach out.
Old friends. Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear.
Time it was, and what a time it was.
It was a time of innocence, a time of confidences.
Long ago it must be, I have a photograph…
Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you.
sacredlead 
I recently came upon a “nostalgia channel” on tv and there were Paul and Art from 50 years ago singing that song. I was transfixed. What wisdom they had in penning those lyrics. The only thing they didn’t get right was how today we can still be vibrant and active going into our 8th decade! We don’t need to simply sit on a park bench and watch life go by. We can write blogs, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and even lead team building activities for teenagers as I’ll be doing next week. Still, they were on target about one thing – how terribly strange to be 70! (Or getting close in my case!) Best to you, Bob. Will I see you at AEE in Minneapolis? I will be there, and expect to connect with our mutual friend Jim K. And hey! Ain’t it great to still be alive?
Totally agree with your comments, David, and see from your FB posts that you remain vitally active in so many ways. Know that I salute you. The strangeness about being 70 (or in my case well beyond), is how quickly the time jumped from our 20s til now. And the questions remain, do I seek to continue to contribute and if so how, or, if health permits, settle for visiting the many memories of people and events from the past? I well know Tennyson’s answer and wrestle with it almost daily: “‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world…and tho’ we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” I won’t be in Minneapolis but will raise a glass to you and Jim. Please pass along my greetings.
I love this! Love to my two dear old friends😘
Sent from my piano
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Back at you, our friend.
Thank you for that reflection Bob. It touched a chord and made me think of the close frIends I have made and some of the deep experiences had with one or two of them. Where does the time go? Reaching out now.
Good for you, Wayne, for taking action in reaching out to your friends. Glad that the post helped spark that response. Also happy that we are connecting. Will I see you at Summit?