What’s forty years in a lifetime of friendship?

Life is a series of choices. Each and every day we can make a choice to make the day a positive one or to let it go to waste. On my birthday last week, I chose to be extremely happy despite missing my extended family. Each year it makes me sad to realize I am totally cut off from my past. I remember a time when birthdays meant having my friends over, serving tiny open sandwiches and dancing to 45′s of Paul Anka and Brenda Lee or doing “The Twist!”! Gift selection was easy. Boroumand bookstore on Mashad’s Pahlavi Avenue knew what I wanted for I had invented the “wish list” way back then!

Four decades later, most of those books are still sitting on my bookshelf. I open them one by one and read the inscriptions. “To my best friend in the world!” or “To Zohreh, the best friend one could ever have.” Their young faces parade before me and I wonder where they are today. Last night, as I re-read a book of poetry given to me by a “best friend” I haven’t seen in over forty years, I sent good vibes and silent thanks to all the good people whom I may never see again. Who knows? They may remember me, too!