I just got off the phone with Tripp. We hadn’t talked in … months. Not for any particular reason, either. Just, life gets in the way sometimes. Half a continent in between will do that. After I hung up and the house was quiet again, I had this weird mix of feelings. Joy from having talked to a friend; sadness that I wouldn’t be seeing him in the near future; happiness from the jokes shared; and regret that here’s a person I don’t see in the near-daily fashion I once did.
I think it happens to all of us at some time. Often, people move in and out of our lives with varying frequencies, important or critical or valued for that time but then are lost–often with little consequence–in the ever bending shuffle of our short and hurried times on this hurtling space rock. It happens more often than we realize. But every once in a while, when you’ve been a good little boy or girl and eaten all your vegetables, you meet those people who just … fit. You get each other’s sensibilities and appreciate their humor, even if it isn’t the same as your own. Especially if it isn’t the same as your own. There’s an easy exchange of thoughts and ideas and you just feel somehow better for knowing this person.
And these are the people that we remember, long after they’ve left our daily lives. Maybe you recall the first thing they ever said to you (“I’m not gay.”), or the last thing, or the thing that was so funny you nearly pissed yourself (“Her boyfriend is playing horrible defense.”). They’re the select few people that you place in the quiver of Friends, those that you know you could call at anytime if you needed to, those that you’d to pick to ride out the zombie apocalypse with on some deserted island.
But life’s a bitch sometimes. Jobs change. People move. Time’s drumbeat relents not. Sometimes, though, if you’re lucky, you get the chance to tell them that you think they’re great human beings, that they’re special to you, and that you’re grateful for having gotten the chance to know them.
