upsilamba outpost

How was your day? Was it fun? Uneventful? Did something really interesting happen, something you thought you'd share in the office watercooler the next day? Here we be at the biggest mall on the planet with highschool friends you haven't seen in decades, two in fact. How do you even begin? What will your first words be? How do you share your life? What is your life? Remember the tepid coffee you had this morning, the gruesome 40 minute commute to a church no more than 3 miles away, the lazy afternoon breeze that made you very sleepy this afternoon. Imagine this day and all of its consequence and inconsequence. Take that and multiply it by 365 and then again another 20 times give or take a few leap year days. See. Nothing to it!

Love is found or lost. Children are born. Careers start and they flourish or flounder. People visit a faraway place with mountains covered in green or snow or they board sea ships that sit for days on end on oil rigs in the middle of the ocean and those become their new homes. Does it matter if you stayed back in the same town you grew up in or left for a new city, a new continent, a new country when the same blue skies hover over us all?

Recall your old friends. Make a list of things you know about them. I knew this girl once. She made her own clothes. They are simple jumper dresses made in light denim. When I saw her I couldn't remember her name, but instead images of neat little stitches billowed through my brain. I was the Little Prince who wonders why we want to know someones name when there are a million other questions to know about them. Like: what is the color of their eye? What do they like to eat when they are sad? What do they do on sleepy breezy afternoons brought on by easterly winds that sweep through these parts around this time of year? What song reminds them of their first crush---that older boy in highschool with the pearly white teeth and sure stride? Do they like turon?

Old friends are important because they are a witnesses to your personal history. It marks a moment, a version of you that you sometimes lose sight of because you were too busy living, making decisions, trying to love, trying to hate, trying to forgive, trying to survive, trying to be healthy, trying to be happy, trying to appy yourself to a job, a relationship, a role -- that daughter, that girlfriend, that wife, that sister, that coworker, that fiance, that mother, that in-law, that friend.