I have been thinking about Cindy because Pdad and I have been working on a romantic songs channel for our Pandora radio station. It turns out that this is a tasking task indeed because we have disparate musical tastes (think Whitney Houston meets Neil Young—yiikes!). Pdad has been playing Airsupply to please me; I have been pondering why I like it so much. I think it’s because I have a tin ear and zero musical sophistication. I don’t mean this as a knock on Airsupply (although from what I gather from Pdad they might deserve it), but I do mean that I generally like the music that I have heard the most [Note to Pdad: Don't imagine that this will work with Neil Young. It won't. It will ruin our marriage.] So I like Airsupply because of Cindy. She is responsible for the fact that I have heard more Airsupply than most. When I was fifteen, she lived with us for six months. She had a boombox (so cool!) and every night we fell asleep singing along to the important and mysterious (we believed) lyrics of Airsupply. I wonder if Airsupply is still important to Cindy, or if she has moved on. I suspect the latter. I have not.

I remembered my friend Marie this morning when I sat down to read with Duncan and Kate. They grabbed The Runaway Bunny. There is a short inscription, aged almost ten years, inside the cover: “To Amelia, I hope very much that you enjoy this book. I loved it when I was a child, and I hope it brings joy to you as well. All the best, Marie. She must have been a Margaret Wise Brown fan, because we also have Goodnight Moon where the inscription reads: “Dear Amelia, Here is a wonderful book about the close of the day. I hope that each day brings you joy and insight. Love, Marie.” I love these inscriptions because they capture the true Marie as nothing else could. What someone else might say as a banality or a sentimentalized cliche, Marie meant. So honestly hoping that each day would bring joy and insight, that was Marie.

I miss these lovely women and our friendships in floruit. There are many more, of course. But these are the ones tied to the tangibles I sampled today. Two resolutions, the second more keenly felt than the first: 1) Explore Pandora and discover my own musical tastes. 2) Give books as gifts, and don’t be so shy as to omit the inscription.

Do you have friends that you’ve lost touch with, but still think of? What music or objects or other tangibles make you think of them?