I’ve heard that it was an old nautical tradition that when a boat sailed across the Atlantic, the passengers would spend the first half of the voyage raising their glasses to friends astern—to the ones who had seen them off and bid them a fond farewell. “A toast to those we have left behind.”
But as the ship continued to progress across the ocean, the captain would eventually announce they had come to the halfway point of their journey. At this time, the passengers would adopt a new custom. Instead of raising their glasses to friends astern, they would raise their glasses to friends ahead, to those who were waiting for them on the far shore. “A toast to those who await us.” At the halfway point of their journey they would stop looking backward and begin looking forward.
This is a meaningful tradition and a poignant one, for it captures a reality of life in this world. When we are young, we think only of the friends we know, for the great majority of them are still with us. It is friends among us who capture our attention. And rightly so, for
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