Silver and Gold



The Hoster and Fisher kids

 As kids, we're taught the ditty, "Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other's gold."  It's a nice little rhyme, and the teachers or parents make sure we learn it, as it's easy.

When we hear kids singing it, we have a tendency to realize yeah, there's more than a bit of truth to those words.  Some of the friends we haven't seen in ages we ponder about, and wonder if they've even thought about us in thirty years.  Other times, we'll bump into someone from school, and say something about lunch - which of course never happens. 

But there are some friendships that maintain the course.  Some that last throughout the decades, although you may not see or hear from those individuals that often.  There's that tie, that bond.  You know that if you were in a jam, all you'd have to do is contact them.  They wouldn't say, "Well, gee, I had plans . . ." or "Sorry, but I can't do anything."  No, they'll simply say, "I'm on my way."

Friends such as these are rare, and I've been blessed to have several.  They know who they are, so I'm not going to embarrass them by naming them.  Suffice to say, they know the meaning of true friendship, and over the years have taught it to me, as have my parents.  What these individuals have shown me is that in order to have friends, one must be a friend.

Every year around the holidays, I get together with my buddies from college.  It's one of the highlights of the season for me.  We talk about the past year, living in the dorm, and we all remember people the others didn't.  (Getting older is really a downer.)  I don't know what it means to the others, but I look forward to it throughout the year.  Last year, the first from our group passed away.  It hurt, but we knew that he would want our meetings to continue.  Paul died, but our friendship didn't.

With the passing of time, we'll continue to add more friends, but maintain the ones we have.  Some friendships we'll let fall by the wayside and wonder as time passes what happened to them.  Don't do this.  Friendships are gifts we should treasure and nurture.  Keep them always and let your friends know just how special they are to you.  Don't let one be silver, another gold:  They should all be platinum.