Where are those old friends now?

"Forgotten one by one, old friends, old friends" 

I don't know if the new generation knows this song, but I know for sure that most of us older people do. Aside from the melody, when the words of the song come to my ears, I drop everything I have and dive into the vast ocean of my thoughts. 

When I think of old friends, who hasn't come and gone, who hasn't touched my life until this age. Who has not taken place in the human gallery of my memory. The ones who have kept their place in my memories over the years, the ones I have forgotten, the ones I want to forget but can't, and the ones who have added meaning to my life in some way. When I think about it, I see that each of them has a different place in my life, because old friends remind themselves at every opportunity with all their experiences. 

The lyrics of the song bring up everything about the past. With my heart, which is now a bit emotional, I listen to the lines "In forgotten names, Unknown how, where, Now only in pictures, old friends, old friends" with great awe in the silence of the pitch darkness of the night. Now, I try to remember. Indeed, many of my friends are only in pictures. Some of them are living in another city, some in another country, and some, unfortunately, left us early and passed into eternity! When I look at the photographs, I see that those who left us early continue to live in our memories with the same vitality as they had at the age they were taken. I know that my old friends and I, although we miss each other, our lives have gone and are going in different directions. Even though we sometimes wish to get together again, it doesn't happen. While some of my old friends and I get together again over time, some of them remain only in my memories. Whether we meet or not, I don't forget my old friends, I don't want to forget them, because I know that forgetting them means forgetting myself, my experiences, my past.

On the other hand, how lonely we feel in crowds these days, don't we? We are with people, we laugh, we talk, but sometimes we have difficulty in sharing our feelings and thoughts with them. An emptiness that we find it hard to name keeps the distance between us. With some of them we live in a compulsory relationship, with others we continue in a relationship of interest. With some we have a temporary meeting, a rapprochement and then part ways without realizing it. With some of them, who enter our lives in our later years, we experience some kind of incomprehension and misunderstanding in our interviews and conversations. As such, we feel the need to choose our words more carefully for fear of hurting them. This causes a gap, a wall between us.

But is it like that when we are with old friends? As a matter of fact, when we come together after many years with our friends and dear friends whom we have not seen for many years for one reason or another, we hug and embrace and immerse ourselves in a common flood of emotions as if there has never been any interruption in the time called life, which is flowing separately for each of us. The tears that flow from our eyes are nothing but the release of the emotional intensity of missing each other in this false world. When we get together with old friends, in spite of the passing years, we suddenly forget our age and social status, we become children, we joke, we tease each other. We want to play 'games' as if we were the age of our grandchildren. Because with our old friends, we go back to the past, to our childhood, our youth, our early days in our professional lives, when we built our friendships together, and we feel like we are returning to the past. We want to be together without any anxiety, without prejudice, without resentment, with compassion. Despite all the years that have passed, this closeness remains as warm as if it were the first day. 

God, what a beautiful thing, this friendly face, this look that fills one's heart! This is what it feels like when two old friends meet after many years in this mortal mortal world. If you find friends you haven't found for many years, hug them and never let them go. Because you don't have time to rebuild those old friends anymore.

With respect and love