Friendsiverse

I have been blessed with a LOT of friends. They lie along a continuum that looks thus:

< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

Some         Most         Others

Some of my friends very religious (fundamentalists, actually).  Others are atheists.  Most fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

Some of my friends are loud, opinionated, and bombastic.  Others are demur to the point of near invisibility.  Most fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

Some of my friends are liberals (politically). Others are conservatives.  Most fall somewhere in between.

Some of my friends are polite and courteous to a fault.  Others persistently run roughshod over the feelings of others (mine included).  Most fall somewhere in between.

Some of my friends are truly genius (intellectually speaking).  Others seem unexplainably incurious.  Most fall somewhere in between.

Some of my friends are rocks of emotional stability. Others are an ongoing emotional train wreck.  Most fall somewhere in between.

Some of my friends make me laugh – always. Others seem incapable of seeing the humor in anything.  Most fall somewhere in between.

My friends make me better.  All of them.  They push my thinking, they express concern, they argue with me, they cry with me, they challenge me, they joke with me, they force me to consider and re-consider.

I am thankful that my friends are all so different.  

I’m afraid of what I might become if my friends were all alike.

If you’re one of my friends, THANKS.  I forget to say that sometimes.  (And, please be patient with me.)