Kindred spirits

I was reminiscing with my sister about years past, and our conversation wandered over to the love of my life.  This was a tragic love, one of completely unrequited passion.  I met him when we were both young lawyers.  Looks-wise, he was unexceptional, neither handsome nor ugly.  But within ten minutes of his opening his mouth, I was completely smitten.  He was the wittiest, most charming, most intelligent person I’d ever met (a statement that still holds true today).  He improved on further acquaintance.  Conversing with him was pure pleasure.

During the year and a half I knew him, all I could do was bathe in the warm of his personality.  And I really mean it when I say “all I could do.”  Sadly (for me, not for him), he was already engaged when we met.  While there’s no telling whether he would have been interested in me if he’d been a free man, his love for his fiancée precluded any possibility of his viewing me as something more than a friend and colleague.  Sigh….

I’ve never again felt the passion I had for this man, but I certainly have met a few people since then with whom I’ve felt a connection that goes beyond the superficial pleasure of being around nice, interesting people.  I call it being “kindred spirits.”  My sister asked, “you mean you’re on the same wavelength?”  I guess….

I’m a gregarious soul, and get along well with most people.  I call many people “friend” or, if the relationship isn’t that close, I might think of them, although not call them, a “good acquaintance.”  There are certain people, though, with whom I can relax mentally.  I don’t have to explain myself.  I don’t have to worry that they won’t “get it,” whatever “it” happens to be, and I’m never bored in their company.  I certainly have that kind of friendship with Don Quixote.  He and I are very different people, so different that, superficially, it might not look like an obvious friendship.  But we are, I think, kindred spirits, understanding each other way down at a core level.

I have the same kindred feeling with a relative of mine, despite the fact that we speak maybe once or twice a year, and see each other even less frequently.  When we were young, we were best friends.  When we got older, we went our separate ways, with some hard feelings attached.  But when I speak to her on the phone, we still finish each other’s sentences, laugh at the same jokes, and are easily able to leave a lot unsaid, without in any way impairing our communication.  There’s a comfort level there that I don’t feel with people I’ve known equally well or with whom I have a more current, active friendship.  Kindred spirits.

Kindred spirits are one of life’s great blessings.  Friendships are good, very good, but having someone in your life who never bores you, and who always gets you (even if s/he doesn’t like what you’re saying), makes life just a little sweeter.

Do you have people like that in your life or is this just my own peculiar world view/approach to relationships?  Without saying this as a compliment to myself, ’cause it’s really not, I’m a fairly complicated person mentally.  Maybe I simply expect too much from most interactions, and therefore am able to get what I expect (or hope for) in only a few of my social relationships.