...blessed with 2 lovers and maybe 5 friends.

I often tell people that maybe I've had only 2 to 5 friends in my entire life. And one lover. No, make that two. I'm cultivating a second love. It's underway. Love takes time. To nurture. To build. The more I think about it, the more I doubt that lovers ever reach perfection with each other. Because if it's a real love, it gets better and better and better. It never stops getting better. Even if two lovers are together for 1,000 years. Even forever. Seems to me that the only perfect lover in the cosmos is god himself. God knows how to love. All of creation. Without exception. Now that's perfect love. We mortals -- well, if we reached the same perfection as god, we'd be equal to god. I wonder if god ever expects that to happen. It'd be nice if I could live to see that day. Because then I'd live forever. Anyway, back to friends. The nature of friendship. I think friendship is quite similar to love. True friends accept each other unconditionally. Just as true lovers do. That's why I say I have had so few friends. I'm not sure that my so-called friends would accept me unconditionally. I think Jeanne would have. She was my best friend ever. And I have a handful of others that I'd like to think would accept me unconditionally. I know I would accept them. Anyway, as for those who would accept me conditionally, they're really acquaintances. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Just think about it. In 72 years of life, I've been blessed with 2 lovers and maybe 5 friends. --Jim Broede