Saturday, October 14, 2006

Poetry and Friendship

A package full of poetry books arrived in the mail today. It was a gift from Katie. Who is Katie? Way back in the summer of 1970, Katie was my girlfriend. In those days we were young hippies, carefree, and living out the end of the sixties. During most of whatever happened that summer, we were together. It was Katie who went with me to the Atlanta Pop Festival, along with 400,000 other people, to see Jimi Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner on the 4th of July. Thinking back through the mists of time I don't really remember meeting Katie or of us parting. I think we drifted apart because we went to different colleges. Although I thought about her from time to time, we had no contact for over thirty years. Then, a few years ago, another friend ran into Katie. I obtained her email address and sent her a note. We have been in contact ever since. She has a family now, too, and lives in another state. We exchange notes about our current lives and old memories. Once again an old friend has re-entered my life. This is a great experience. I can quickly think of several people who have re-entered my life in recent years and now I wonder how I lived so many years without them. These are the kinds of friends where, once we got back together, the years melted away and it was like no time had passed at all. Friendship is a great and wonderful thing and something to be cherished.

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