Friendship

Kevin Ventrudo

Dear Classmates: At David’s prodding, I share with you the toast I gave at our son’s wedding:

In March of 2014, Scott and I were cat skiing in Canada, with some people in this room, and we all had a great time. Scott may have had the best time of all of us, and after one particularly epic run he yelled out, in addition to a few things I can’t repeat here, “This is the greatest day ever!”

It was a truly great day, but, for me, the greatest days ever were when Nancy and I got married, when Scott and Lauren were born and, of course, January 25, 1987, the day the Giants beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI.

Scott, I can’t speak for you and it is hard for me to do this, but TODAY has clearly displaced that Super Bowl on my list.

And the reason for that is the two of you. We all love Emily and have long considered her a member of our family, and it is clear that the two of you are so much in love. But at least as important to Nancy and me is that you two have such a beautifully deep friendship, which we can testify is incredibly important in making a great marriage.

My favorite quote of all time concerns friendship, a quote from the philosopher Michel de Montaigne that has stuck with me since I first came across it over thirty-five years ago and which I want to share with you tonight:

What we ordinarily call friendships are nothing but acquaintanceships and familiarities formed by some chance or convenience, by means of which two souls are bound to each other. In the friendship I speak of, our souls mingle and blend with each other so completely that they efface the seam that joined them, and we cannot find it again.