Friendship will take us under the goalpost… I wrote those words to an old friend last night.
They aren't Shakespearean and they probably
aren't grammatically correct, but he knew exactly what I meant. Just a typical
JumboLove saying pulled from a big booty.
At sixty, friendship looks a hell of a lot
different than it did at twenty. Back then, friends were the guys you went
drinking with, went to Sox games with, chased girls with, stayed out late with
and occasionally helped make some very questionable decisions.
We thought those were the important moments.
Turns out, they weren't. The important moments came later.
Divorces, parents dying, kids growing up,
careers changing, friends getting sick, people we loved disappearing from our
lives...
…And that strange realization that there
are more miles behind us than there are ahead of us.
That is when you discover
who your friends really are. They don't necessarily fix anything and sometimes
they can't. They just stay in the huddle.
They listen to the same story for the
fifth time. They call when they haven't heard from you. They remember your
Oldman. They know your kids' names. They can make you laugh when there isn't
much worth laughing about and when you have taken about all the hits you can
take, they put an arm around you and help move you a few more yards downfield.
Maybe that's what I meant last night. Life
is one hell of a long football game. None of us gets through four quarters
without getting knocked on our ass a few times.
When the clock finally starts winding down,
I don't think it will matter much how many points we scored. It will matter who was still in the huddle.
And maybe, if we're lucky...
…friendship will take us under the goalpost.
