Circle of Life

How appropriate that it began with an orange.

I was recently contacted by an old friend through the power of the internet (itself run by little 1s and 0s). I met him in high school when a mutual female friend tried to get my authoritative opinion. He was eating an orange as though it were an apple- taking a big bite right through the rind and all. Instead of criticizing, I shrugged. We became instant good friends.

Our circle of friends constricted a bit into a triangle with the aforementioned girl. And then it constricted again when I gave her a ring. He found his own girl and we regretfully went separate ways.

I wish I could say the ways we went were separate but equal. They were, if you consider that we both made big circles. I moved away and back home several times. I went from married to single and around again. I went from what I studied in college to a hated job that paid the bills and now am back in film.

He only needed the one ring for a woman. His Navy tours took him under the North Pole, in a big loop around the Pacific, and back again. He went through the Mediterranean, and came back. He moved from the east coast to the west coast, and now is back again.

After two decades of us traveling, moving, and changing our lives, we met up a couple of towns over from where we first met.

And, of course, he was a little more orange-shaped, which was gratifying.