Old Friends

I just found out that a friend from growing up, my age, has non-small cell lung cancer. She is taking experimental drugs but doesn't seem to be doing well. She's married and has a 15 year old son.

Life can seem to go on forever, but really it's quite short, isn't it?

Melancholy thoughts. I thought of this old Simon and Garkunkel song, that speaks of aging and the passing of time...

Old Friends
from Simon and Garfunkel, "Bookends" album, 1968

Old friends, old friends sat on their parkbench like bookends
A newspaper blowin' through the grass
Falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends

Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settles like dust on the shoulders of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy

Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears