Today is my dear old friend Charles' sixtieth birthday. We were bosom friends in high school and went to Georgetown together. In May 1988 we took the greatest road trip of all time, the two of us, from Salem, Oregon to Nashville, Tennessee in his 1974 Dodge Dart. We were both twenty-three years old. I remember almost every minute of it. Heck I remember every minute of that entire spring and summer, I think. Some eras of your life are like that.
He and I have drifted apart over the years, but we are still friendly. I am one of many people he knows in life, but there is no substitute for the trust of old friends, which are the greatest thing in the world.. I saw him last year at a wedding in California. Even though we haven't been bosom friends for a long time, it would not surprise me too terribly much if such an opportunity came around again, provided we both lived near each other. Right now he lives in Hong Kong. I think if I went there and sought him out, we would have a good time.
I wanted to wish him a happy birthday but the only reliable contact I had for him is on LinkedIn. He posts on LinkedIn a lot as part of his environmental activist position, or vocation, perhaps. I told him that LinkedIn was the shittiest way to wish an old friend a happy milestone birthday. I quoted from a famous football coach, "once you get the six handle on your age, you enter a whole new space." Indeed.
Since high school, Charles has been a fanatical runner, a passion shared by many of my friends in high school. He is also an avid outdoorsman and alpinist. I would not be surprised if he were, at this very moment, on his way to climb Mount Everest. I've heard there are no postcards up there, so I don't expect I'd get one.
As for my part I had what amounts to a fantastic day. I hope his, and yours, is as good as well. Indeed, I do feel so old and so young.
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