Long Time Friends

I caught my self reconnecting with a friend recently who I haven't seen since about 1992. 18 years, and it seems like a lifetime ago. He hasn't changed as much as he moved through his life like the rest of us - I'm not sure that I can say the same of myself.

But here he was - a friend from so long ago, from when I was 18 years younger. A bulletproof version of me, unscarred by life and untarnished by the glass ceilings and politics deemed necessary by human society. Back then breaking rules simply meant that the rules themselves were fragile. Back then there was a group of us eating at a barbecue singing, "Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

In its own way, I expect the song was true for everyone. I know I've worn my shades quite a bit. Everything was so attainable.

So reconnecting with an old friend allows that - from a period before the Internet really caught on, where a period of my life seems missing in the digital landscape other than a few small anecdotes which have been told so many times they may as well be sea stories.

Crazy diamonds in the rough. We're still out there somewhere.

And we're still wearing our shades. :-)