John stayed over last week-end and we had a great time. It was good to be able to sim­ply be totally relaxed around some­one, instead of being cau­tious, as is the case with even the clos­est of friends. It was enjoy­able to have some­one I can be com­pletely open with.

I think it’s a rare bond that he and I share. I often believed that I would never be able to have some­one know every­thing about me. The idea scares me, makes me cringe. Yet in this week­end, we were able to under­stand each other in such sub­tle ways that no expla­na­tion was needed for many sub­jects. I real­ize that John knows every­thing about me. He has such a his­tory with me that I can feel com­fort­able with such an idea. He’s the only per­son who has met every one of my girlfriends.

One of my favorite con­ver­sa­tions was about the way he man­i­fests his sup­port of the FTA by steal­ing (also delec­table) lemon mints with the words “Down with the FTA!” printed on the wrap­per. Another mem­o­rable one that comes to mind was con­cern­ing our dads mid-life crises. When he found out that a Boxter was part of mine, he told me that his only did some­thing as benign as get­ting re-married. I couldn’t stop laugh­ing when he said it, because it spoke of such a quirky under­stand­ing I have of his father. Yet it also so dis­cretely tells of the value of his rela­tion­ships, another things which I’ve come to under­stand in him.

I believe the appeal of these con­ver­sa­tions is the way in which we can com­mu­ni­cate. Most of my friends are peo­ple whom I can have a good time with, instead of being able to relate intel­lec­tu­ally with. My rela­tion­ship with John allows for both, and I always feel refreshed when I’m fin­ished talk­ing with him.

I can only hope that the effect is mutual.