Auld aquaintance
An old friend stopped by for a visit last week. He’s recently moved to the DC area, and a couple of months ago posted a comment here along the lines of "Are you the Elizabeth who…."? And I was. We’ve emailed back and forth a few times, and finally managed to connect in the flesh.
When D asked who this friend was, I told him that when I met E, we were closer in age to Daniel’s age now than to our current ages. We met in Freshman bio, literally more than half a lifetime ago.
If we were meeting for the first time today, my guess is that we wouldn’t become friends. Our paths probably would never cross, and if they did, we’d probably get into a political argument within five minutes. (I certainly don’t have any other friends who are regulars on Little Green Footballs.) Not that we didn’t have constant political arguments in high school, but somehow it seemed more possible to disagree more or less civilly then.
One of the things that I envy when I read Jo(e)’s blog is the way that she’s embedded in a community. Her kids go to school with the kids of people she went to high school with. I grew up in NYC, so I’m not sure that I could have had that sort of experience even if I hadn’t moved away. Sitting at my table with E is probably as close as I’m ever going to come.
