Friends

Just thinkin about friends and what makes a friend. I attended a memorial service for a man I worked with several years ago. I also worked with his wife and continued to have an acquaintance with them even after moving on from the job. However, was he a "friend"? I've always thought of friends as being those who are close to you, someone who knows you very well inside and out. In fact I alway feel uncomfortable referring to someone as a friend, when to me they are an acquaintance or a colleague. But the memorial showed me that perhaps I'm wrong in that thinking. Perhaps those so-called acquaintances or colleagues are friends too. Am I too exclusive in my word choice? Or too narrow in my definition? This gentlemen had perhaps 150 people at his memorial -- Under my definition I doubt all would be "friends," yet here they were celebrating his life on a dismal rainy Sunday afternoon. It really didn't matter the level of contact they'd had with him, nor the depth of their relationship with him. They valued knowing him, as did I. They valued memories of time spent with him, as did I. I didn't know him inside and out, but I did respect him and enjoyed his company tremendously so many years ago. I am thankful to have known him. And yes, in the end, he was indeed a friend. I thank him too for in his death he taught me a valuable lesson even at this stage of my life. With his help my tent of friendship just got a lot bigger. Thank you Dick.