The Cousinette Epistles 6: Friends

Dear Cousinettes:

Your Aunt Ginger and I have a tradition to take some time off every year the week before Labor Day.  This tradition started after our last sprout severed roots and tumbled away. 

Next week we will celebrate 36 years together.  Our anniversary is on the 29th of August and it is a convenient time to get away.  Little did we know in 1976 what we were getting into.  I have to say it was all good--not all easy--but all good. 

Your Aunt Ginger could be best described as the best friend a person could possibly have.  I am not the only one who thinks this.  I am the one who has gained the most benefit from it.  Being friends and being married is a very good situation.  It helps to get you through difficult times.  More important it magnifies the times that are wonderful and enables you to tolerate most of the times that are just uneventful.  I aspire to be as good a friend to her and others, as she has been to me and hers.

I heard it said that if you want a friend then be a friend.  The world we live in today is a beautiful place when you have one.  It can be a lonely place when you don't.  You will have times when you have money, and not.  You will be excited, and not.  You will be devastated, and not.  But in all your times, if you have a friend, if you have friends, you will make it through.

I work with people and their financial investments for a living.  These are important.  From where I stand today, I sincerely believe that the wisest investment a person can make, is in the effort to be a friend.  Not a fair weather, good times buddy kind of friend.  Be a grab the tissue when you cry, hold your sides when you laugh til you hurt, and get in your face when you are screwing up kind of friend.  If you can be that friend, the dividends are undeniable.  You will have riches beyond your imagination. 

I have one.  She is amazing.  You can have as many as you can love. 

Your crazy uncle.