You’ll indulge me, I hope, if i write something to mark September 23. It is the birthday of my best friend, dead 8 years 9 months now .
That is a loooong time, as the milestones of life go. My child had just started college, for one thing—now,,she’s a JD about to start her first legal job. i wish he knew that.
Anyway, he was about 6 feet, he had curly red hair and a dark beard which was just starting to grizzle when i met him in 1987. His skin was ruddy, he always looked warm. he had green eyes, green the colour of new grass. He had a deep rumbly speaking voice and actually a beautiful singing voice, though he never did sing except in jest .
He could charm anybody. Anybody. I’d seek him out in the crowd at my parties and find him engaged in conversation with the very last person i’da expected.
And we used to joke: when one of us is dead, no one else will ever be able to understand what you and i saw in each other! Boy, were we right! Which is why I’m writing here, in relative anonymity: there’s nobody else i can talk to.
Anyway, he was one man in a thousand, as Kipling put it in a poem ive quoted here before. Happy birthday, i have not forgotten, as i promised i never would.
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
That was a beautiful tribute to a relationship so deep between you that no one else could understand.
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So beautiful. I am so sorry, Hypatia.
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Sorry for your loss. With me it seems they love me or hate me from first sight.
Sounds like with your friend, they either loved him or really loved him.
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…and I think the difference between those two, regarding charismatic men, is whether or not people perceive them as a threat. They all ARE a threat to other men, (and a possible source of pain to women) but—my old friend was a municipal worker, y’know: trash collection, snow ploughing, leaf cleanup, road work—and you my new friend are a warrior. You’ve got rank! People have to take a stand concerning your charm very early. Am I right?
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I am just beginning to meditate on this as it becomes more clear what I had long sensed but could not comprehend. Thanks for the non-judgmental feedback and question.
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“People have to take a stand concerning your charm very early.”
I think most men see me as a threat but more in comparison than anything so they love to hate me at first sight for just being me. The few women who really and truly despise me, wanted more than I could give.
Most of the worst of that crap is in my distant past.
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That’s good dear Saint!
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I liked this post because it reminds me of my best friend C who I’ve known since high school. No romantic interaction here but a true friendship; we can talk about everything on a very deep level and best of all, he gets excellent seats to Yankee and Red Wings games whenever he is back in the States! (Lives in London but travels quarterly to NYC and Detroit where we were both raised and learned to love sports.)
Back in the day, my parents absolutely adored him and could never understand why we didn’t marry! That romantic spark was never there, but the intellectual and emotional connection was and is very real.
I understand how you feel, Hyp.
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