I set myself a task this evening. Hooked up to my MP3 player I went out for a walk. The mellow voice of Madeleine Peyroux set a comfortable pace. The music; however, turned out to be a weaker draw on my senses than the spongy, hot August evening. The sky was black and motionless; before it the trees stood out in surreal relief. The heavy mist felt tingly and made my skin shine. Before an intense palate of black and green my eyes awakened from their mid-summer sleep. I turned off my music, took out my ear phones and walked, as such an evening demanded, "unplugged."
Untethered to the words of the music, my mind quickly started to wander. I started thinking of the start of school in September and how I might be able to engage my 11 year old son, Kyle, in creative evening activities. I had him start a blog last year. He has a few entries in it. (Right click HERE and "open in a new window" if you would like to take a peek.)
I thought I might ask Kyle one evening to write a blog entry describing his idea of the "perfect friend." With this exercise, he would have to think about: 1. what it means to be a friend and 2. what qualities constitute good character.
No sooner did I hatch this little plan for Kyle than I started thinking about it in reference to myself. Enter Frankenstein - how would I "build" the perfect friend? I don't know if this would be my final design, but the prototype would be something like this:
- there would be a male version and a female version
- he/she would be strong, decisive
- objective and non-judgemental
- brave but not foolhardy
- wouldn't dream of telling me a lie to spare my feelings
- would love me but never pity me, envy me or enable me
- would not need to be with me constantly to know how important the friendship was
- someone I'd want to "measure up to" and vice versa
- would most likely have a "quirky" and unique take on life
I think that's probably more than enough to expect of my imaginary paragon! I have one friend who very closely fits my ideal. Zoe was the subject of my very first blog entry in 2007. She has been the best of friends for over 35 years. I had no idea that my one hour walk this evening would take me all the way to BC!
What a happy thought this exercise has been. Love ya Zoe!
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