I’ve thought a lot about friendship lately
- col-lee-elliot-aging-graciously
- August 18, 2024
- 517
Recently, I attended a memorial service in my hometown for a friend I’ve known since I was a freshman in high school. He was an internationally known trumpet player, composer and teacher, highly thought of by all who knew him. I have two songs he wrote especially for me and many tapes of his wonderful work.
What a disappointment it was to find I was the only friend at the service — just his family and me. I went because I wanted to honor him one last time, and I know he would have done that for me. We had both moved far from the town where we met and spent many years with only a little communication, but always in touch. A few years ago, he moved back to town, and we saw each other and talked on the phone frequently. I have to take into consideration that many of our mutual friends are gone now, and we are lucky to have lived this long, but still, it was an empty feeling, like when you’re gone you’re gone ... oh well.
I’ve thought a lot about friendship lately. To me, it is next only to kinship. I value true friends so highly that I can’t imagine ever losing that. In my elder years, I have begun to realize my values may be unrealistic. Still, if I’m your friend, you can count on me being there until I’m the only friend at your funeral.
My appliances are definitely not my friends. I purchased them all new when I moved here 20 years ago. Today the washing machine sighs with a big load, the dryer decides when it will run, oftentimes with the door open. The oven and microwave aren’t sure just what their temperatures should be anymore, and last night the dishwasher started growling and refusing to heat and finally chose not to run.
Some say 20 years is an amazing amount of time for them to have been serving me, but I honestly do remember our first — also our last — dishwasher when I was growing up lasted 40 years, and the gas refrigerator used to store medicine in my father’s office, never did give up the ghost.
Built-in obsolescence is the key to keeping your home filled with up-to-date shiny new appliances and digitals. The manufacturers are thriving. I just wish their products wouldn’t decide to all move out at the same time, especially now, because I know I won’t be here in 20 years to replace them again.