I have been thinking about true friendship over the last week. We all have many types of friends. There are those new “social media” friends, who may be people who we have never even met. An interesting development, since the concept of a friend to me has always been someone with whom you share experiences – dinner, drinks, theater, travel, you get the idea.
I pass no judgement that the word friend has been changed to be something totally different. So what I want to talk about are those people who are your “true friends.” A true friend is someone who you know in the physical world with whom you can laugh and cry. A true friend is someone who you cannot see for years but when you reconnect, it’s like you were never apart.
I have reconnected with some of my true friends in Los Angeles over the last few weeks. Men who I lived with in Boston but who now all live in L.A. We all left Boston in 1992 and went our separate ways. Some to New York, some to Miami. I moved to Los Angeles. Over the last few years for various reasons they have all landed in L.A. Our lives became our lives and I did not see many of them for literally decades, yet now we are all back together and it could not be more fun.
When you get together with a true friend, you can reminisce about the fun you used to have when you were years younger that brings into perspective who you are today. I laughed till I almost peed my pants with one of my friends from Harvard Business School. Mike and I travelled the world together for 16 years every New Year’s Eve with three other HBS grads. There are stories and events in my life that only those four guys know and that will bond us forever.
I went out with two other friends from my Boston days and we went to the Tortilla Republic, The Abbey and Here; the Weho Sunday bar triumvirate. What was interesting is that my old friends and I were all the same, just older and wiser. We still find the same things amusing, we still have the same political opinions and we still can agree to disagree. At the end of the night, I realized how much I missed them because we have a true connection. One that should be cherished.
I have an assignment for you this week. Reach out to a true friend and reconnect. Not through Facebook or any other social media platform. How about an old fashioned phone call? You can use social media to “reconnect,” but call the person. Hear the cadence of their voice, their laugh, their pain of telling you that someone close to them passed away. Reconnect with someone who knew you when life seemed less complicated or was your best friend in high school.
Trust me it will feed your soul, as only true friends can do.
