No faster or firmer friendships

Julia ♦ July 10, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Amy and me with a teeny-tiny section of her family’s BOOKS! February 2012

“There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.” ― Irving Stone

OK, think of how to describe the friend of your dreams.  The best friend you can imagine.

First, and this is a big one – someone who lives close enough that you can get to her home in less than an hour (in good traffic).  Hmmmm, that leaves almost all of my friends out.  Well, we’re just imagining right now, so we can come up with anything we want.  That one is not a requirement for being a friend, but in an ideal fantasy world, it counts.

OK, next, someone who has the same value system as you do, and understands your life’s priorities.  Someone who is there the minute you need her.  Someone who totally gets it when life is horrible and you just need to cry.  Someone who doesn’t expect perfection and knows how to laugh often and heartily.  Someone who loves to travel and is fun to be with when it’s time to go places.

So far, so good.  Now let’s add some icing on that cake.  Someone who has a super cool animal living at her home — and for me, extra points if it’s a dog.  Someone who has lots of tea and likes to chat over a cup.  Or two.  Or three.  Someone with lots of ice cream…no, make that an ice cream parlor! In her basement! With toppings and everything! (Hey, this is a fantasy, remember?)

And here’s a really big one: someone who LOVES BOOKS, all kinds of books, including some of the same ones you love!

Wait a minute…I just described my real-life friend Amy!  So some dreams come true, and not everything in my life is difficult right now.  If some of you are wondering how we manage to keep going through all that has happened recently, now you know one reason why we can.

Not every friend will fill all these qualifications, but most of us have some very dear friends with whom we share at least a few of them.  Aren’t you glad?  Whoever came to your mind when you read this, send her (or him) a quick note to say “thanks.”  While you are at it, find out if there are any good books you can talk about together.   Ice cream optional!

One year ago today:

The best kind of friend

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.