晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 90. Old Friends, Good Friends

[00:00.00]Passage 90. Old Friends, Good Friends

[00:06.12]More than 30 years ago, when I took my first job in New York City,

[00:11.91]I found myself working with a number of young women.

[00:15.20]Some I got to know just in passing, but others gradually became my friends.

[00:21.21]Today, six of these women remain an important part of my life.

[00:26.51]They are more than simply friends, more even than close friends.

[00:30.67]They are old friends, as indispensable as sunshine and more dear to me than ever.

[00:37.23]These people share a long-standing history with me.

[00:41.60]In fact, old friends are a lot like promises.

[00:45.33]They put reliability into the uncertainty of life

[00:49.48]and establish a reassuring link between the past, present,and future.

[00:54.96]The attachment between friends who have known each other for many years is bound to be complex.

[01:02.40]On occasion we are exceedingly close, and at other times one or both of us invariably step back.

[01:10.38]Ebb and flow. Thick and thin.

[01:14.54]How smoothly and gently we negotiate these hills and valleys

[01:18.91]has everything to do with how well the friendship ages.

[01:22.74]Sometimes events intervene in a way that requires us to rework the term of a relationship.

[01:29.96]A friend starts a second career, let’s say, and suddenly has less free time.

[01:35.44]Another remarries,adding someone new to the equation.

[01:40.03]Talk honestly and listen to each other to find out if the other’s needs are being met.

[01:46.05]Renegotiating pays full tribute to life’s inevitable changes

[01:52.07]and says that we deem our friendships worthy of preserving.

[01:55.79]Old friends are familiar with the layers of our lives.

[02:00.82]They have been there in the gloom and the glory.

[02:03.55]Even so, there’s always room to know more about another person.

[02:08.37]Of course, self-disclosure can make even old friends more vulnerable, so go slowly:

[02:15.26]Confiding can open new doors, but only if we knock first.

[02:20.56]Time is the prime commodity between old friends

[02:24.94]—by this I mean the time spent doing things together.

[02:28.44]Whether it’s face to face over a cup of coffee,

[02:31.28]side by side while jogging, ear to ear over the phone, or via email and letters,

[02:37.74]don’t let too much time go by without sharing your thoughts with each other.