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Friendship Ode

Watched Firefly Lane recently and wondered why so many viewers (myself included) enjoyed it. It has many flaws and is ridden with cliche and predictability. These are the kinds of defects that sink a show but somehow this got watched plenty. A no-limits friendship is likely every person's dream though very few find it in their lifetimes. A friendship that begins in childhood and lasts for life is also highly desired but not always possible. These things come to pass for Kate and Tully in the show and the viewers live their own friendship utopia watching them.

In real-life for the average person (like myself), a spouse enters the scene and what used to be a great friendship transforms into a frosty acquaintance at best. They keep you in their thoughts and prayers but are no longer able to be in your life because it disturbs the equilibrium of their marriage. You drift and drift until decades pass since your last conversation. You decide after much hesitation to call this person to see if there are any signs of life left, if that long ago time when this person was your closest friend was only in your imagination of a romanticized past. She sounds just the way she did back in college when you answer the phone. She remembers small details from those years that you have long forgotten. There are old inside jokes you can still laugh about but that is all an inch deep. There is nothing beyond that one hour that compresses the lost decades. 

You know there will be no more than a couple of pleasantries exchanged per year if you are lucky. I can imagine she would love Firefly Lane too - it conjures up a vision of the world that does not exist for her, like it does not exist for me. I am grateful for the friends I do have, specially the couple that go back to childhood. While it is absolutely nothing like the two characters in the show have, it is still remarkable that we have stood the test of time, the many upheavals in our lives and being separated by continents and oceans. They are the people I would never hesitate to contact when I am stressed, sad or upset - they know what it takes to help me restore my balance. They are also the first to know the happy news. No matter what the state of friendships in our own lives, I think we can imagine it extrapolated to Firefly Lane level, adjusted to our realties. That is why the show wins big.

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