Love, as we age, is shown in many personal and strange ways.
Close friend: “Don, I’m noticing your big right ear sticks out further from your head than your big left ear.”
Me: “Why do you find it necessary to point this out to me today?”
Close friend: “Well, you’ve lost so much of your hair recently, it just became so noticeable.”
Me: “Well, great evaluator of human form, you keep me posted on other developing features about my aging head.”
Close friend: “Do you mean like your rapidly-growing nose?”
Me: “That’s enough! I’ll bet you’re trying to beat up on me because you’ve got issues bugging you that you don’t want to talk about?”
Close friend: “Yeah, my kid got kicked off the baseball team after practice yesterday and I almost hit the coach.”
We did a quick men’s type of hug with pats on the back and I told my close friend we would tackle this together later when we catch up with the coach.
My close friend, with watery eyes: “Thank you.”
You may call this banter, I call it love.