I was a Bluebird, when I was a little girl. The song we sang: “Make new friends, but keep the old, One is silver, but the other gold.” While running this morning, I remembered the short ditty and marveled that my new friends were actually my old friends.
What do I mean? Well, on Monday night the New York Board of Rabbis had their annual gala/fundraiser. David and I have worked with Rabbi Joe Potasnik now – truth be told, almost twenty years. And though we don’t normally run off and tape events for friends or business colleagues on the drop of a dime—David wanted to do this for Joe. Joe, of course, said yes—why would anyone refuse?:) And so David went off with one of our production assistants and taped the four-hour event.
I thought about how long we know Joe—it seems – because time is funny that way—that he is a “new” friend. But he’s not—he’s known us since we were first married, he hired us to do our first documentary together as a team, (he’s always taking the credit for our success☺) and over the years – through business dealings – some successful—some not —through personal triumphs and private loss, our friendship has grown. It hasn’t always been easy—we’ve had our periods of mutual pique that, quite frankly, lasted longer than they should have—but the friendship always won out. He is s good man, with a good heart. We like that in a person!
This afternoon I saw another of my seemingly new, but actually old friends, Paula Mack Drill. Paula was in the very first documentary David and I did together—and then, since she is so lovely, passionate, and articulate, she appeared in another two, or maybe three more. When I first met her, I didn’t know that we’d become friends, but her decision to become a rabbi made her flower in such an exquisite manner, how could anyone resist? Years go by, we attend their children’s Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, they attend our Valentine’s parties … and suddenly you wake up one morning, and you’ve been friends with someone for twenty years.
Now, every year, Paula and I take a couple of hours off in the middle of a summer’s day and sit on my patio, drink lemonade or newly fizzed seltzer, munch on cheese and grapes, and have a woman/lady/ goddess afternoon. We chat about projects, children, fears, accomplishments with a sprinkling of gossip—not too heavy, after all she is still a rabbi☺ But it is a lovely day, a lovely tradition and I think about how lucky I am. How links of love, interest, and respect grew stronger and more solid, transforming moments into lifetimes, how the days turned into years, and how the years turned new friends into old. My friends are truly golden, and I am so ever grateful.
