This is a song by a guy named Chris Rosser.

It’s the only song I have with “Benjamin” as a title…so it was the only obvious choice.

It’s my friend Ben’s birthday today.

Ben was a running buddy.

We were friends in High School.

When you break things down in as few words as possible, things look kind of weak sometimes. There usually is more to the story than a few words convey.

I have been blessed with some great friends over the years.  I don’t think it’s a testament to anything other than “divine providence”….it’s nothing I did to deserve good friends, it’s just the way it worked out.  I have been extremely fortunate in the “friend department”.  I am blessed.

Ben is one of the great ones.

And, like I said before, it’s his birthday today.

I don’t remember laughing as hard lately as I did when I was hanging out with Ben.

I remember this one night when we were cruising around one of the subdivisions near our homes in Ben’s old Plymouth.

It was foggy, and we had a few beers…so we were sitting in the fog, drinking these beers. We were laughing…then Ben tried to throw his bottle over the roof of the car.

I watched for the bottle to hit the front lawn of the house we were sitting in front of…but it didn’t make it that far.

It hit the top of the car and rolled off…and we laughed.

Later that same night, a big Newfoundland dog…I think it was a Newfoundland…like a big solid black St. Bernard…maybe it was just a big solid black St. Bernard…I really don’t know….anyway, this huge black dog came out of the fog and stuck his head through the window of the Plymouth…and just rested there for a couple of minutes, letting me pet him…and then ambled off back into the fog.

Like a dream.

And of course, I bet we probably laughed.

I met Ben in the trombone line during the first day of marching band practice.

We were the only “hip” kids in that whole marching band. We were the only cool ones…so it was only natural that we became friends.

(Actually, I was pretty geeky. Ben was the cool one.  I think he befriended me out of kindness.)

Who am I kidding? We were both geeks.

We spent a lot of our time together trying to figure things out…or just laughing.

It would be interesting to have a good long conversation now that we’re mature and know all the answers.

I don’t see Ben much these days.  We don’t get a chance to visit very often.

But he’s one of the friends who is going to be my friend forever.

Whether we see each other…or get a chance to talk…he’s one of my friends.

That’s kind of nice.

Of course, that’s just my perspective. He may be thinking, “Gads, I thought I ditched that dude a long time ago…and then this whole Facebook thing blows up in my face and he tracks me down, and here we are again…right back where we were in High School.  Can’t he just leave me alone?!!”

Nah…he’s probably not thinking that…probably not.

It’s Ben’s birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

(It should be noted at this point that I don’t condone drinking beer in old Valiants…or throwing bottles onto someone else’s manicured suburban lawn.  It is wrong…and if I hadn’t been laughing so hard, I might have put a stop to it all. Those were different times back then…it was the 70’s.  I think that Ben and I have both grown up a lot since those heady days of youth. I am sorry for Ben’s transgressions.)