“It’s one of the great ironies of travel: You meet someone on a journey, come to know them intimately in just a few hours, then never see them again. You promise to keep in touch, but it seldom happens. When you return home, your own life takes over, and so does theirs. Inevitably, the connection begins to fade…
Sometimes you meet someone you know. You have spent nights together. You’ve campued together beneath the sky and sung songs together and drunk beer in each other’s homes. You have hugged and cried and laughed together. And you’ve never met.
There are few such people in the world, but they are the ones you will always know and who will always know you. They are living in parts of the world where you haven’t been. They are living lives you cannot know. They have kitchens with bright windows you can’t imagine, where you had coffee. These are the people you meet, and know, before you speak…
…Even deep friendships are fragile. Someone you met on a journey years ago is out there. The friendship is not lost, only dormant, waiting for the spark of contact. Go. Find that person.”
– Mark Jenkins, “Friends Forever,” The Hard Way, Outside Magazine, October 2005
