I�m listening to �The Last Waltz� by The Band right now. I remember getting The Band�s second album when I was a kid and being so taken by it. I played that LP so much I could see through it after a while. My best buddy at the time was a couple of years younger than I. He played guitar. I mean, he could really play. He�d come over and we�d listen to The Band and we'd play along. He could play all of Robbie Robertson�s licks with precision. Anyway, the next year, I went to a different school and we lost touch. I saw him a couple of times after that but I haven�t even thought of him �til now.

I never had a lot of friends...at a time, that is. You�d think, therefore, that I would have treasured the friends I�ve had a lot more than I have. But friendships were so disposable when I was young. You remember Kenny. We were close. We played guitar in a folk group. We were both photography geeks. Hell, I even dated his sister for a long time. We hung out together a lot when we were going to college in the early seventies. I graduated in 1974, got a job two thousand miles away and I haven�t heard from him since. I broke up with his sister six months later and I haven�t heard from her either.

It didn�t really matter to me at the time. I�m the kind of guy who will make a big change and never look back. I didn�t hang onto relationships. Actually, if I had held those people closer to me, I�d probably have a lot more friends today. I dunno. Friendships are precious to me. It�s just that people change. They move on. But, you know, it�s getting harder to let go as I get older.

I married luvofmylife twenty five years ago. I didn�t really believe in marriage back then but she wanted to tie the knot so I went along. I�m still not sure if I believe in marriage but I do believe this; I would almost certainly have let her fade from my life the same way all my other friends have without our marriage. It forced us to make a commitment to each other. So, during those times in our relationship when there�s been a lull, (There are always lulls in any relationship, bye the way) or distractions like career or a change of venue, there�s still a point of reference in our lives when we made a formal commitment to each other, in front of witnesses, that we�d be together.

I�m ever so grateful for that point of reference because, over those 25 years, there have been times when we were a little less than enthusiastic about each other. We could have come to an end at any time. And we wouldn�t have what we have now � better than ever. And she�d be just another memory, a faded image. And that would've been a tragedy.

Arc