--I’M A BIG FAN OF LOVING YOU

...I have been thinking about friendship quite a bit, how important it is, how lucky people are to have good friends, the kind where there are no walls, where you can break down and cry if there are tears in you, the kind of friends who will let you peel back your skin and show them your dark and fearful places, the kind of friends who you can get pissed at over petty things or big things, who will take your tantrum in stride and still love you regardless.

I’m really lucky to have some of those in my life.  I have less than a dozen friends of that ilk, but I have some and that’s all I really need.  They’re enough for me.

Last week I was in Milwaukee spending time with one such friend, one of my favourite guys on the planet. In every way, it couldn’t have been a better time.

Tomorrow I head to Portland (I know—You’re going to Portland again?) to see my other favourite guy on the planet.  Every trip there leads to side ache laughter and shenanigans.

Friends are more than important.  I’m not sure what the right word is.  But let’s just stick with important, even if that’s trite.  For someone like me who is virtually alone 80+ percent of the time, those experiences with friends are like going to see your favorite band perform, and then after the concert, having the lead singer (in this case it would be Ryan Adams, Brandon Flowers or Chris Carraba) invite you back stage to hang out, regale you with stories, share some drinks, and stay up until dawn, then exchange cell numbers.

I hope you have some great friends.  I hope they make you laugh so hard you have to walk away because your lungs are bleeding.  I hope you feel vulnerable enough with them to bawl for an hour, curled up on a chair while they say, “It’s okay.  Keep crying.  I think you need to.”

I’m sure you have those type of friends.  Maybe take a moment today, or soon, to celebrate them somehow.  I bet that would make them very happy.

 

...So I hope you have a fantastic week.  I won’t be posting until late Friday when I return, but I thought I’d share some things I like that you might as well.

 

-“You only live once, but if you do it right once is enough.” Mae West

-"In things pertaining to enthusiasm, no man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions." Henry Ward Beecher

-"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." Ralph Waldo Emerson

-"Discovery consists in seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

-"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." William Merger

-"We must not indulge in unfavorable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe that they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain." Walter Savage Landor

-"There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lie happiness." Gelett Burgess

-"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."- Thomas Edward Lawrence