Aristotle said, “A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.” Rather profound. Winnie the Pooh said, “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.” I get that. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he of that damned albatross, said,”Friendship is a sheltering tree;”. I can picture that.
And so it goes that there are an infinite number of quotes, sayings, poems, songs, about friends and friendship. Are you all aware of the meaning of the word “epiphanic”? It’s an adjective meaning a striking and sudden realization. Picture a light bulb going off over your head. I’ve had several epiphanic moments in the past few weeks.
I know not why nor do I care. I’m taking the ball and running with it. The other day I took my 95 year old mom out to do some errands. We ran into someone we both knew, though through different contexts. I first knew her in high school where she was two years my senior. We played on the tennis team together. In a school both competitive and ruled by cliques, she transcended those things. She was kind and fair to each person she met.
Her dad and my uncle were longtime friends from childhood. Her family went to my uncle’s services and my mom and I went to each of her parent’s services. It’s what we were taught to do by the older generations of our families. It’s oddly comforting to be able to share a common bond during an emotionally fragile time.
This woman recounted how her dad would visit my uncle in his last several months of life. And she disclosed there were times when her dad would return from the visit and cry. We can only assume he was crying over the impending loss of a friend. These were men who spent their childhood in the Great Depression, then went off to unknown places to protect America’s democratic way of life. Upon return, each man went a different way. One married and raised five children along with his wife. The other worked and cared for his elderly mother.
Whenever they chanced to meet, the joy on their faces was immediate and genuine. Regardless of the passage of time, it was like they had run into the other on the school playground each time they met. Even as their chance meetings took place at numerous wakes as they aged, they found comfort in their memories and their feelings for one another.
As our friend spoke about the connection between these two men, the light bulb turned on in my head. I got it. These men, now deceased members of the Greatest Generation, truly loved one another. It was that simple, or rather that complex. What they had was true friendship, in my estimation. They loved one another with the depth of spirit and the ferocity that their life experiences shaped in their personalities.
Would my life have been incomplete if this epiphany had not occurred? No, but I’m so glad I had that epiphanic moment because it allowed me to see the absolute beauty of a true friendship. Since I believe in an afterlife, it warms my heart that Jack and Bill are reunited, talking and laughing like they’re still on the school playground.
Stories Are For Eternity 