Friendship is a funny thing. It's love, but a particular kind of love that transcends most of the physical trappings of something more legally defined. Most people, when questioned, would sooner give up their spouse than their best friend.
Barring for a moment that perhaps those should be the same person, too often it isn't and that's life. Perhaps it's an instinctive protection against losing both in one shot. I know that's a lesson I've learned, as with so many things, the hard way.
I have known her longer than anyone excepting my immediate family, even taking into account the five years we didn't speak (more on that in a moment). Funny thing, alphabetical seating in second grade changing the course of my life.
She first taught me what it was to love and what it was to experience heartbreak. She taught me the meaning of time spent together and the value of a voice on the phone at odd hours. She was my best friend.
So one late January night, distraught beyond consolation, I called her for the first time in five years. She answered. She's teaching me something about friendship now.
See, I once cut her out of my life at the request of another, and any normal person would have told me to fuck off when I called. While she was, and is, justifyably angry at me, she still answers when I call.
Sometimes she calls me, too. I'm still learning things.
I'm sorry Meg. I should have said something sooner. To you; to the world. Thank you for answering my call that night, and for answering still.
Meg and I met in second grade. We've been through a lot together. We've been through a lot apart. We're still talking, laughing, learning. Life can be pretty surprising most of the time, but that's what makes it so interesting. After all that's happened, we're still talking.
As an interesting life moment, this very post has been a point of contention, so the original last line has little significance any longer and has been removed. Things change pretty quickly it seems, but perhaps that's the way it needs to be. To make it current change most of the above to the past tense. Otherwise this all needed to be said.
