Now that my children are mostly grown, I can get away sometimes. I spent 10 days with my friends in Bogota, and took a little time to reflect
that this is the first time since childhood that I have been able to keep in touch with friends for so many years.
Odd, though, what a varied group my friends are.
There's Sonia, who wants to know if I ate breakfast and do I have an umbrella.
There's Marcella who lives a somewhat libertine life, but absolutely honest in her dealings with others.
There's Tatiana, a general's wife, who introduces me to art, and fine restaurants.
Another friend, much older than me, is so careful with every detail, always apologizing for unforeseen inconveniences, kind of like Sonia 2.0
And then there's the younger Brazilian woman who thinks I am
some kind of voice-of-experience.
Kris asked me one day who I like best to be with. I thought about that and then came to this conclusion. I need all of them in my life.
I am like a cellular phone moving through the city. Every phone call I make "pings" off a different tower. On TV, a detective locates people by finding which tower most recently relayed a call from their cell phone.
My friends and contacts are like points of reference in my life. From one I learn something, from another one, something completely different. From an older friend I am warned against something, from the younger friend I remember something else.
I find comfort in being with people just like me, but I find growth and real pleasure in being with a wide range of people. We need to hear the shouts of children, and to clean up after them. Likewise, we need to hear the shouts of the elderly, and when the time comes we need to feel that flood of compassion and clean up after them too.
We need other languages, backgrounds, other views on life.
Indeed, we need to get our news of the world from more than one source.
Caveat: I do not mean that you should go search out the bad in the world in order to experience it, what you see on TV is quite enough.
