To My New Facebook Friend

Hello Michael,

I saw your name in the “Add 1 Friend” column— and so I did. And you accepted! 40 years since I sang next to you in the college choir and truth be told, can’t remember thinking of you much during all that time. But your name sparked the clear image of your innocent face, not even bearded yet, sitting near me each day on the bus that Pierre drove through the European countryside, aiming for the cathedrals where we strange long-haired hippies would fill the air with the sweet sounds of Dufay. We weren’t fast friends, but I always enjoyed you and we shared some of the same stories during those two months.

I looked at your photo on the page and squinted to recognize your face. After all, we both have turned to sleep each night some 12,000 times since then, Time walking over our bodies and awakening each morning just a millimeter different until we arrived at these faces we have now. Yours seems a kind face, a content face and I’m happy to imagine a life well-lived between Innocence and Experience.

I’m thinking of this driving up Highway One on a glorious California day when Dufay rises up from the i-Pod and yes, that was us all those years back, singing Flos Florum in the church in Ronchamp. Here we are again, dancing in those tones, each note connecting the procession of selves we have been. The road which stretched out so endlessly before us back then is mostly behind us now. But still I am driving forward, there is more road ahead and these faces we have now may one day be the ones we squint to recognize within the weathered ones to come.

So a wave from across the country and four decades, a moment to remember that marvelous time and fortify and re-invigorate ourselves for what lies ahead. Thanks for being my Facebook friend!