Silver

It's not what you think.

I grew up in a small town at a time when the only organized activity outside of school or church was scouting.  So I was a Brownie who "flew up" to be a Girl Scout.  (I predate "Daisies.")  And my fellow Scouts and I hung in there until we were 15 or 16.  The only reason we left scouting was because our beloved leader died.  Without Selma, we foundered.  But I can tell you today that I am still friends with at least a dozen of those girls, and we still love to tell the stories, sing the songs, and eat the cookies.

There was a Girl Scout "anthem" of sorts that we sang at meetings and events.  "Girl Scouts Together" was the name.  My friends and I can still sing it from memory these 50+ years later.  But there was another song, a round that repeats with us always:  "Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."  Simple enough.  And what it meant to us as kids, I can't remember.  It probably seemed more like a directive to be nice to the new kids who moved into town.

But now?  I get it.  I still have many of the friends I have gathered over the various places I have lived, gone to school, and worked.  They are gold.  Some of them I have known for almost sixty years.  They are pure gold.  But the silver?

I met one of them today.  A friend of a friend.  In less than two weeks, I will be traveling with her and two other friends to see the Northern Lights in Iceland.  One of these friends is gold, one is pure gold, but this one is silver.

We met for lunch, and three hours later, it seemed like we had always known one another.  I suspect that down the road, through alchemy or just a whole lot of laughing, she will become gold to me.

But for now?  I love the silver of meeting new friends.

Click here if you want to sing along:
http://youtu.be/sMAxP-95yn4