Remember when you were a kid and friendship consisted of some shared experiences like crush talk or sports or bunking parties? In my mind, at that time, the moment was now and loyalty counted above all. I had a few best friends back in the day, but most of the time I was just everybody's friend.

As I grew older, I came to realize the static nature of this thing we call friendship. Through numerous class reunions and life changes I discovered that friends play an integral part of one's life and then fade away for awhile until the universe sees fit to bring the next scene of that relationship into focus. At any given point in my life, my best friend du jour has been a teenager or one of my parents or siblings or just a passer-by. Sometimes it's somebody I work with. Other times it's someone who just met me and knows my heart. My daughter and her buddies have been my best friends on many an occasion. And their parents. And my brothers. And people I've never even met.

What's a friend to do then? Affirm the beautiful and forgive the ugly, I think. Tactful honesty is a loving gesture that a friend can offer. For the most part, though, it defies definition and assumes the shape of unselfish giving and loving for another's personal growth or just for a laugh or a good cry. Just because....they celebrate who you are.