Which, if you kinda sorta look at the capital letters (or is that capitol, no, that ain't it) is F-R-I-E-N-D.
Friend = comfort. Fun. Laughter. Care. Concern. Telling you "you're an idiot" when you're really an idiot.
Friends sometimes, outrace relatives to find the right way to help you 'when something is wrong.' There is a wonderful uniqueness of being a blood relative, truly. Love is always there, it's just the way.
Ya don't. Ya don't pick your relatives - but you love the heck outta them.
Friends, you pick - or, they pick you.
There is something about the word 'share' in friendship. Shared time. Shared admiration. Oft times, shared beliefs, likes, wants - but, notta hunnerd percent - which keeps friendship intriguing.
Friends are people you never wanna hurt and vice versa. Friendship can involve butt dials at 3am, texts unanswered (not purposely) for 17 hours, sometimes them saying "nah, I don't wanna", but lotsa times saying "Let's", a two word contraction for Let Us. As in, quoting Austin Powers, "yeah baby."
Family reunions happen once a year. Friend reunions usually are weekly. Sometimes more, sometimes not as much.
Friends are an exit ramp off the Interstate of everyday life. Once you pull off onto that exit, fun, love happens. Friends are living, breathing forms of Prozac, Wellbutrin, Xanax, Valium, yada. Friends are the impetus for the hair coming down, the corners of the lips going up. Laughing until it hurts way outpaces any plank, elliptical, treadmill, lap swim as far as 'good for the heart'.
Sometimes we, as friends, spat. That's ok. Maybe for the next time, or few times, insteada taking that damn ramp off Interstate we choose to sidestep via the roundabout - but, in due time we'll hop back off onto that ramp, and BOTH be glad we have done so.
Friends are the Dewey Decimal System (ok damnit, the Google) in remembering things from long ago you'd forgotten. You can forget some of the memories all of the time, all of the memories some of the time, but if you really fuck up (sorry, for impact purpose only) friends never allow you to forget.
A friend will recount a story, sometimes twenty, thirty times - and each time, stopping mid-sentence to "enter laughter here", and it's a way to look back on life, things done, that were maybe more fun that we even imagined. The word treasure comes to mind.
Friends = sanity, as well as insanity, if that makes any sense.
Four friends golf. Friend #1 virtually always wins. Friend #2 has very good days, and some not-so-good days. Friend #3 is improving to the point he oft times now comes in 2nd place. Friend #4 is the worst golfer, loses more golf balls than Carter has pills. I Wiki'ed to see how many pills Carter has, couldn't find it - but, #4 loses so many golf balls he goes to WallyWorld to buy them for $5.99 a dozen. (For non-golfers, that's cheap as hell.) So.........
No one cares who wins. Well, #1 does care so much he's very hard on himself, to the point of cussing at himself (continually) after a bad shot, to which his friend says "Don't you talk to my friend like that." #2 will hit a bad shot, offer up a slow, deep huffaw in laughing at himself. #3 remains mostly quiet after a bad shot, but earlier this year he became so frustrated he threw his club in the trees after hitting a ball outta bound. This is where friendship comes in. We laughed our ass off at him. We brought and wore bike helmets to protect ourselves from him the next time we played (which, is a lie, we wore them so he'd know how stupid he was to have done that, he earned it, and yep, it reminded him "we're here for fun, screw what anyone shoots, scores... there's beer after.") #1, #2 and #3 ALL have to be careful, because #4 loves to write/blog.
Bottomline - time with friends, be it golfing, wine club, a movie out, bunko (we know you don't really play bunko), yada - is yummy.
Life is very much for living - but when friends gather, it's kinda like an eraser wiping away all the shitty chalk that accompanies real life. (Don't you dare say 'rock chalk', patooey!)...
Friends cause wrinkles, introduce you to a different kinda love, yet still very deep, emotional. When any friend happening happens (be it a text, a visit, a party, a golf game, wine club, bunko, ugly sweater, whatever) - on the way home, we create imaginary thank you cards to send.
My take, friends very definitely contribute to the longevity of life.
There are burps, coughs, snorts, belly laughs, farts (sometimes on purpose), pop/beer coming out one's nose, tears... you know, stuff you couldn't do gathered with the normal man (or woman) on the street. Thank God friends are not normal.
"It's one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Tell it on the mountain Ralph, YOU DA MAN!)
Pandemic. Mask, no mask. Vaccine, no vaccine. More month than money. You and the old lady (or old man) arguing? Weather not to you liking? Fellow commuters cut you off, flip you off, piss you off? Knee, hip, shoulder pain? Insomnia? Oversleep, late to work, a meeting, a ball game? Tire of talking to yourself about how crummy recent events have been? Belly churning?
Have a friend. Gather. Laugh. Enjoy. Forget. Elevate.
Winter spring summer or fall.. .all you've got to do is call.
Next best thing to having a dog. Kidding. Kinda sorta.
Your friend, Henry Gibson
Love, Victurd
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