Four, Oh! Happy Birthday, Son.

A friend of mine just turned "the big 4-0" and I spoke with him on the phone earlier about the party his better half is throwing for him tomorrow. As we spoke on the blower we talked about all manner of things -- work, his 10 month old baby girl, his forthcoming wedding, this chick he thinks I should meet, when would be a good time to exchange the books and records we've swapped over the months, etc...you know, shite like that. Sometimes we don't talk for weeks but everytime we link up we hit the ground running, like we'd seen each other yesterday. It reminded me of something Khalil Gibran had to say about friendship...

On Friendship...

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth:
and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Sidenote: I peeped the very picture above of Bill and Hillary Clinton tacked on the wall of my homebiscuit's office back when I first met him; when I used to work in the same building with him and I thought, "I'm gonna like this tosser." I was right. It made me laugh then and it still does, look at all the promise on their faces. "As in the mountain to the climber" is our friendship... Raising an oat soda over my keyboard with a pinky extended: Happy Birthday MJ, I gotta shot glass with your name on it so read closely...if you're gonna be a bear, BE A fuggin' GRIZZLY...see you at the Brass...Laters...