Thursday, May 22, 2008

I Won't Forget You My Friend

As I was driving to work a few days ago I heard a song by Pink (yes, one of my long-time favorites) and it reminded me of several friends with whom I've lost contact... usually for no particular reason. It's so easy to just drift apart you know? You can spend some of the best hours of your life with a person and three years later not know them at all. Anyway, I think Pink's song really speaks to that, though she is talking particularly about a boyfriend she ostensibly had I see it as a song about the loss of friendship.

I'll just quote a few lines:

Remember when we were such fools
And so convinced and just too cool
I wish I could touch you again
I wish I could still call you friend
I'd give anything
When someone said count your blessings now
For they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong
They knew better

I'll keep you locked in my head
Until we meet again
Until we
Until we meet again
And I won't forget you my friend
What happened?

It's hard. There is a fellow named Bryan Steele whom I was awesome friends with even though we just spent a week together in 2001 we kept up for several years via email and phone... but then just lost contact. I'll think about him occasionally and wonder where he is, what he's doing...

There have been a few people I was really good friends with that have become just friends... we don't talk as much, we've drifted away in distance and life. But I miss them. Sometimes a lot. Friendship is an amazing thing that way. Here's another song that speaks to that by Sugar Ray (kudos Stashu, wherever you are)

Now this is somethin' from back in the day
I'll always remember Run DMC
And all the good times
That we had on the beach
Stealing sips from a paper cup
And making out in the sand
Maybe I'm dreaming
Can you tell me

[Chorus]Do you remember
The summers that lasted so long
June til September
Was our time to sing our songs
Do you remember
All of us together
As we grew up under the sun

I'll always remember everything we do
Rockin' the eighties blastin' KROQ
I remember Culture Club
The Clash, and Men Without Hats
Seems kind of funny right now
But it's taking me back
We'd always sing along
And laugh out loud at ourselves
Don't want to stop dreaming
Can you tell me

[Chorus]Do you remember
The summers that lasted so long
June til September
Was our time to sing our songs
Do you remember
All of us together
As we grew up under the sun

I want to rewind every time'
Cause the words have so much meaning
They were there when nobody cared
Always knew what I was feeling
Stay tonight don't leave me reminiscing
All I do is wind up missing you
And you missing
Are you missing me
na na na

[Chorus]Do you remember
The summers that lasted so long
June til September
Was our time to sing all the songs
Do you remember
All of us together
As we grew up under the sun

So, here's to all our friends: past, present, and future. You're the best, I love you, I miss you, and I hope all is well. I Won't Forget You My Friend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Neither will I forget you Taylor...

I've been scouring your blog and it's "taking me back". Thanks for getting at me via facebook, it's funny that I was thinking about you not 4 days ago, and wondering what you were doing.

A great quote from Márquez that I came across this summer:

"I realized then that to die is to no longer be with your friends."

This quote hits me. If you turn the quote around, he's saying that to live, in essence, is to be with your friends. Something about that statement rings true. It makes me think that friends are the truest gift of this life. Well, what about family?

It seems to me that family are the biological 'data' of life: everyone has at least a father and mother, many have sisters and brothers. But it is the sister who is a friend, the father who is a friend, not to mention the kid you once looked askance at until the slow forging of true friendship began, these are the true gifts, given not in the sense of an antecedent 'datum' but bestowed upon us from a loving God.

Truly a friend is something to be grateful for and to hold onto, however circumstance and distance might change the dynamic.