Ties that Bind

Someone's post a while back inspired me to ponder friendship and cause me to wonder what bring us together in the first place? Sure, there's the obvious answer--common interests, common workplaces, common experiences, shared history... Such friendships, however, often develop over time and may or may not be continued once one of you leaves the shared setting.

What I'm wondering is, what is it that brings people together and instantly bonds (or repels) them for life? I met my best friend at work, but it was more like a reunion than a first meeting, the bond was that immediate and that intense. Such people are those I can't imagine living without.

Another form that bond may take is not as intimate. You may share it with someone you don't necessarily fit with, someone you've never been able to have a proper conversation with. You don't even move in quite the same circles but for a bit of overlap. And yet, you feel this accord, this sense of metaphysical attachment. You are each glad for the other's existence in the world, even if you are not meant to move through it intimately, and there is always a hug or a smile for the other. Nothing concrete holds you within each other's affinity, and yet there each of you are with this unmistakable ribbon of kinship between you.

Why is that?

Some may shrug their shoulders and not desire an answer. Others might posit that brain chemistry and hormones are the cause. But if you're like me, you might instead be asking yourself another question: What roles have we played in each other's past lives? What have we shared in the past that has carried through to our present selves? How have we helped and loved--or even hated--each other then, so that we are still aware of our bond? Wouldn't it be interesting to find out, if there was a great big Oxford Encyclopedia of Past Lives you could flip through and say, "Ah yes, of course. That makes perfect sense. I think I remember now..."?

Just who, exactly, is the Tooth Fairy?

My son lost a tooth the other day, and of course we put it under his pillow and he got a dollar for it. As I listened to him prattle on about the Tooth Fairy, I realized something funny...

He thinks the Tooth Fairy is a man...

Had to smile.