The View from 62

I've been rather quiet lately. Anyone who knows me understands I don't believe in the old saw “if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing;” but that, in fact, is what has kept me quiet. Everywhere I looked the news was bad; I was too disgusted to write anything that was more than a rant against homophobes, Tea Partiers, Republicans and all the other small-minded people hijacking the news lately. From the Pope and his empty apologies to the crazy Christian and his Koran burning to Karl Rove coming to Yale and pretending he deserves to live . . . it all just seemed too much, so I've been quiet. But the old Walter will be back, I promise.

Tonight though I want to talk about love and friendship and how blessed I have been with both.

Friendship has been important to me since I can remember. I met Ricky in the third grade and we became intensely close even at that young age. We don't see each other much, but we are still close and still love each other a lot. Then there was Gary Winston in Japan, a friend I have not seen in 47 years but still miss and wonder about, and Will Buergey, who grew up to be a Delta pilot and then the head of the pilot's union; haven't seen him in 45 years, but we're still in touch and that means a lot to me.

There's Don, who I first knew as a teenager and who has been my best friend for 45 years. And TMcD, Liz and their son Dan, whom I have blogged about before; Tom I met at Notre Dame in 1969. Dave I met the year before and John back in 1966 – all still good Notre Dame friends. There's Elaine, my “sister” from Atlanta, 1963, who I took a cruise with a few years ago and look forward to seeing soon.

And here in CT there's Suzanne and Mike, my oldest friends at Yale; Judy, my once-upon-a-time boss and now dear friend; another Judy, a new friend whose office is next to mine; Leigh, Rich, Karrie and Robert, fine people I met at church; Sergio, a former flute student, an excellent cook and an even more excellent QE2 travel mate.

And why do I mention this last group? Because they all celebrated my birthday with me tonight and I am grateful to them.

Even more gratitude goes to my husband Ransom, who set up tonight's party. He booked a Thimble Islands Cruise, telling me only that we were going out to dinner. It was a wonderful surprise made even better by all the fabulous food these folks brought. As I said on Facebook a bit ago, “I do have the best husband ever!”

So right now, tonight, the view from 62 looks pretty damn good.