Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
And the other gold.
These are lyrics of a song that is stuck in my head.
I was unable to find the name of the author, but according to Anita, of Song Scouting, the original lyrics date to at least the 1920’s. No clue who Anita is, but that’s the best Google and I could do at giving credit.
I first heard this song from a big purple dinosaur named Barney. If you were anywhere near public television in the early 90’s chances are you’ve heard it too. It’s also a Girl Scout song.
You know how annoying it is when a song gets stuck in your head? I even catch myself humming it.
So why do I have a Barney song stuck in my head? Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about friends, or more specifically about making friends.
If you’ve been following us, you know that we have – once again – turned our world upside down. Only this time instead of hitting the road, we’ve come off the road in Southern California. We are once again homeowners and once again residing in a neighborhood, only this time it’s a neighborhood for the 55+ crowd. (Other Half reminds me it’s a “community” not a neighborhood.)
The community is full of nice people. We’re nice people. This friend thing has to start somewhere – seems like a good place to start. For Other Half it started on the golf course while wintering here the last three years. Not so much for me. So far our start at friends in the community consists of waving at each other from our golf carts, small talk at the gym and sharing dog stories while poop scooping at the park.
A few of our new neighbors have stopped by, one even brought us mini strawberry rhubarb pies from Costco. Like I said, nice people.
This friend thing is a piece of cake, or pie, so what am I worried about?
Over the years when I’ve observed other people in a similar situation, I’ve offered up my stellar advice on making friends. Here’s a sampling of my favorites:
Just be yourself. This one is especially annoying. Who else would you be???
Smile. Smile. Smile. Ok. Ok. Ok.
Be interested. Not interesting.
Join. Join. Join. Get off your butt.
Be patient. It takes time.
I like to call my stellar advice Infinite Wisdom. Infinite Wisdom is that well of knowledge that allows you to quickly size up any situation and offer a plausible solution. It’s especially effective when the situation involves other people. In fact the more removed you are from the situation the better your advice.
In other words, Infinite Wisdom only works when you’re giving it – usually unsolicited – to other people.
So now what?
Think I’ll add strawberry rhubarb mini pies from Costco to my list of stellar friend-making advice. My Infinite Wisdom just got a lot more palatable.