The Ending of an Era...

I left work early yesterday to pay my final respects to a bygone age. My friends were in town from Las Vegas for the holidays. As I have joked before, I may be the only person in the 21st Century to have two friends run off to join the circus. In my case, it was the Cirque du Soleil. Two very talented, very fortunate individuals that had the right combination of circumstances and ability and are making the most of it. I couldn't be happier for them.

We had agreed to meet at McDonald's before moving on to the final destination. As I pulled into McDonald's, I could see them ordering while I spent 10 minutes in the car finishing up a phone call. It's funny how time passes and lives change. Yet, somethings don't. As soon as I took my seat at the table, we could have all been 17 again.

Back then we spent nearly every weekend together. Mostly doing really stupid stuff like playing with explosives, making really bad horror movies, sitting around watching 1970's Blaxploitations films. To the day, Black Belt Jones is in my top 10 favorite movies. (YouTube it.....it's fantastic! If you can handle that, try a little Dolomite.) To this day, we can have entire conversations using lines from those movies.

But the Bogarts (look it up, its a BBJ reference...), were here for a special purpose. My good friend, one of my oldest friends, was finally cutting his hair. He had been growing his hair out since I met him in the 9th grade, when he had a mullet. His hair yesterday was long, but thin....real thin. It was probably time. But Rick's hair, for me, was like that last bastion. That last marker of a bygone age. Rick and Carus might have moved to Vegas. Greg might have gone to UK. I might have taken a "real job," had kids and become self absorbed, but I have always had faith that we would always be like we always were. Perhaps it is because I feel like I have changed so much, and Rick has always been....Rick, the very thought of Rick actually cutting his hair was very disturbing to me. Much like our relationship, Rick seemed less upset about the cut than I did. Damn his eternal calmness! I have always despised it as much as I have admired and failingly tried at times to emulate it. The three of us stood there in a circle and heckled him while the stylist did her job. When she was done, Rick had 8 inches of braided hair in his hands and some gel in his hair.

I have to admit, with tremendous relief, Rick didn't look that different. We all sat down over conies and caught up. We told stories. We laughed. I only checked my blackberry once. It was great. The circumstances which brought us all together almost 20 years ago changed as soon as we went to college, but the dynamic that exists between us has not. We grow older, our lives evolve. I would be a liar if I said our paths were convergent. But it's good to know that in spite of our very different lives, the connection is there, and it will always be there. Even if Rick's hair isn't.