Daily Prompt: Something So Strong

Tell us the origin story of your best friend. How did you become friends? What is it that keeps your friendship rockin’ after all these years?

Varigated ivy leaves

Did we cling to each other like ivy, until our friendship was stifled, withered and eventually collapsed? No, of course not, who could resist my friendly charm? Best friends are something for memories, something from a childhood and if they stay as such, then the ivy is still clinging. In our case there are a few ivy branches that still intertwine and remain. It began in high school, although after the first year we were split up into two different classes which stayed thoughout the following five school years. Our paths split, but contact was still there. Was it because we originated in the same area of London, our mother language being cockney (although due to higher education we were encouraged to drop this “street language”). We understood each other and shared the same interests: the visit to an opera in London from time to time, a weekly Winter Saturday afternoon at the local football club cheering on our team.

At the age of 20 I left England for Switzerland and my friend made her way into her own branch of work with further education and the visit to a university but we still sent our birthday and Christmas cards and when I was visiting in England we still met. This began about sixty years ago and it still exists. She is godmother to my youngest son and has visited me in Switzerland often. If I visit my father in London there is always a bed free for a stay at her house. It does not need anything to keep a friendship “rocking”, just good vibes and we golden oldies have so many joint memories to share. In the meanwhile her father and mother are no longer amongst us, and my mother has passed on. Our two families also became good friends through our friendship.

So enough sentimentalities, I am not the type for sugary sweet stuff and neither is she, if she ever reads this. She will know who I mean.

Otherwise I gave up with friendships some time ago. Friends come and go and you are forgotten. I worked thirty years in a company and left a couple of years ago. Apart from the coincidental meeting of an ex workmate when in town or in the local supermarket, I hear no more. I do not expect it, but I remember the last words “keep in touch”, “I will call you”, “we must get together and talk over the old times”. I am not annoyed, not insulted and I am not disappointed. I now lead my own life and do not feel lonely or left out and I do not need “friends” like that.

After all I have Facebook. Now this is a strange thing, you know over one hundred people (in my case over seven hundred) but you have met perhaps ten of them throughout your Facebook sentence. You may have found a few voices from the past, which I have. School friends from your first school years (and that is a long while ago) or someone that immigrated to Australia as a ten year old. After a long search we found each other again. My cousin in New Zealand with his lovely family, even Facebook has its pros.

There are of course a few cons which I discovered this week. Did you know that you have two sorts of contact lists, those you know and those you do not know but would like to get to know you? This week I discovered the “those you do not know but would like to get to know you”, most interesting. There must be at least 10 gentlemen I have never met that have fallen in love with me through my wonderful, impressive, good looks on my Facebook photo. It is unbelievable. I know I do have a certain charm, but at my age, even with the wrinkles and golden oldie hairstyle they still find I am the answer to their dreams. Unfortunately Facebook marked about twenty contacts as “spam” so many of my fan club members will be disappointed and I will never get to know them as they have been removed (thanks to Mark Zuckerberg). I told Mr. Swiss, but it did not seem to bother him, I think there was a faint laugh. Remind me to have a look on his contacts in Facebook – you never know.

I have decided to remain in Facebook with a special eye on this contact list. It might be that one of the Pulitzer prize/Nobel prize scouts look in and I will at last achieve my well-deserved award. Who knows even Brad Pitt or George Clooney might become my friend. You see there are always reasons to remain in Facebook.

Daily Prompt: Something So Strong

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