A Friend is a Friend is a Friend
– Ein Freund, ein guter Freund, das ist das Schönste, das es gibt auf der Welt –
Once upon a time there was a little girl, who always spent her Easter holidays in the enormous house of her five great-aunts in a small village in the industrial area of the Ruhr in NRW, Germany. The old ladies, five independant unmarried women, were really nice but they slept a lot as it is well-known that a good siesta is very good for your health. The little girl was not supposed to make any noise, while the ladies were fast asleep and she respected their wish because she knew that a good siesta was very good for their health. So what could a little girl do, while the old ladies were snoring on their sofas?
In order not to get bored she took to reading. She read loads of books from the Parish library and saved up all her pocket money to collect books herself. Of course, she was eager to meet the cleaning lady and the old ladies‘ neighbour, a farmer’s wife, who sold the eggs to them. She knew both of them would give her 5 DM and some sweets. More money, more books… Bless them. The same little girl also helped out in an old people’s residence. She did the dishes to be precise – for 5 DM and some sweets (again!). By the way, she is incredibly good at doing the dishes… Only this time she did not invest the money in books but went to the local Italian restaurant to get a delicious Pizza Margarita, along with her much appreciated friend Ivonne, eine Freundin zum Pferdestehlen.
She also spent hours cycling through sunny, rainy and stormy weather in the huge neighbourhood to take some religious magazines to the farmers around because we can never get enough geistige Erbauung? Of course, the little girl did not think about that at that time. It was some sort of business and business meant more books and also some sweets. For delivering the magazines to the neighbours, she got a magazine Weite Welt for free. She loved that magazine because there were ads for finding penpals all over Europe and she loved getting letters, especial from Südtirol. She loved getting letters, for the reading part of it and her Briefmarkensammlung, which she had inherited from her grand-mother Anna…
As you may have guessed, the little girl has become a boring grown-up adult woman. Why boring? Because she has received only one love letter in her life and she is know approaching her Fourties (So, it can’t be me… Uf!). Tons of letters and postcards stored in her natal village. The most beautiful and/or original ones come from Britain. Tons of letters and postcards but only one love letter. This is pathetic, isn’t it? A shame. Did we not only stop reading but also stop writing???
Many digressions… Only to talk about an important discovery the little girl made in their aunts‘ enormous house. There were loads of books on religion, philosphy, cooking and primary education (you can put it into the reverse order…). Many encyclopedidas as well. The big one from Diderot and Alembert. Maybe. Ah, the bygone days…! It all seemed to be relatively boring stuff, though, a lot less fascinating than the intrigues and mysteries in Enid Blyton’s, Astrid Lindgren’s and Berte Bratt’s numerous stories of brave children and Backfische in love.
Then – she remembered it as if was yesterday – the little girl found a treasure in second oldest lady’s flat. It was a rainy morning. The sound of the falling raindrops still made her feel sleepy and she was yawning loudly. What did she find then? It was a book that had not been there before (otherwise she would have found it before – logical!). It was a book fallen from the stars: Der kleine Prinz von Saint-Exupéry. Of course, it is a treasure for many people but the old lady had a big heart even though she was reading all day long, which is also good for your health. A well-known fact. The old lady with the snow-white wavy hair gave the book with its yellowed pages to the little girl with the Affenschaukeln as a gift, one of the best presents ever, maybe the second best gift she should ever get. Who knows…
Le Petit Prince is a great book, there is no doubt about it. It is magic. It explains the world to us and describes one of the most important things in life: friendship. How do we have to cherish friendship? How do we have to treat people that are precious to us? I should reread the passage of the Little Prince and the fox but, as far as I remember the story, the fox tells the Little Prince to come back every day at the same hour to the same place (sobre la marcha?) so that they can get used to each other, slowly and without any rush.
The little girl had a few good friends, the adolescent girl had even more and grown-up adult woman has even more. (Un)Fortunately, all of them are really important people: Managers, astronauts, teachers, journalists, translators, social workers, people of law and order, technicians (!), computer specialists, receptionists, hairdressers, farmers, grocers, administrative people… and artists. Really important people are almost always busy, liad@s, occupé(e)s, beschäftigt… because they enjoy what they are doing, which does not mean that other people do not enjoy what they are doing but let’s not dwell on Spitzfindigkeiten. Enjoying what you are doing helps you to get into a state of flow. In German you would say: Sie gehen in ihrer Tätigkeit auf. This is true for the woman’s friends. Of course, all of them had to go through periods of hardship. They have not always been auf der Sonnenseite but, because of their experience from life, they are all considerate, helpful and respectful people.
Sometimes, the grown-up adult woman’s friends are sooo busy, liad@s, occupé(e)s, beschäftigt that they don’t manage to see their dog (those of law and order need an impressive one), let alone their wife, children… and their friends. But in general, they are Meister der Organisation finding always a little bit of time for the grown-up adult woman I’m dedicating this story to… Maybe she is in her late Twenties or late Thirties. Who cares? That is why the grown-up adult woman does not have take the trouble to send a form (Deutsch: Formular; Español: formulario) to the managers, the teachers or the translators because they seem to be the busiest ones, los más liad@s, les plus occupé(e)s, die beschäftigsten (Dale Carnegie, Cómo ganar amigos e influir sobre las personas, p.223). Even though she might send one to a computer specialist or to his AI secretary as he is the busiest person in the universe… ¡Ánimo!
Let’s summarize it with a Queen title: „Friends will be Friends“. Friends have to be patient, only a little bit pushy sometimes. Ein bisschen anschubsen kann nicht schaden… Real friendship transcends time and place. It exists. It is. Beyond.