Thanksgiving: the value of true friendship
Friday, November 28th, 2008This is the card I made for our American friends on Maldives360:
On Thanksgiving Day I spoke with three of my favorite people in the world: one in London, one in Madrid and one in NYC. I also managed to touch base with a brilliant former colleague who is Director of IT at a Top 10 bank and the co-patent owner of a great P2P IM application, which his team developed and which preceded Skype (and frankly knocks its socks off). I’m hoping to work again with him one day soon — if I can raise enough financing and offer appropriate incentives to entice him away from his current role, ha ha. Watch this space, as they say!
Although the current climate is dire because of the global financial crisis and the Mumbai terrorist incident, speaking with people I care about definitely put life into perspective and helps to anchor me. It also made me reflect on relationships and why some work whilst others don’t.
Superficially, each one of them is different: nationalities, age, gender, religion etc. Each one of them is experiencing very unique and special journeys in life so far.
What all of them share is this: they bring out the best in me.
This doesn’t mean we always agree — we don’t; we have disagreements and then we resolve them. However, what marks them out is that our tolerance for each other’s foibles is timeless and boundless. These are people I can imagine and hope will be with me throughout my life and be part of the wider circle of guardians for my kids because they’d enrich them with some absolutely brilliant qualities and values: joie de vivre, practical sense, open-mindedness, compassion and a whole heap of intelligence.
It isn’t only on Thanksgiving Day we should remember to be thankful for our family and friends. It’s every second that they agree to accept us for who we are as we do them.