If you were brought here by my recent invitation the poem I referred to is in Alice Walker's "Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful" which is a book I have been given once and bought a number of times but there is never a copy in the house, because I keep giving to people and then hear nothing about whether they liked it or not, which is fine. Anyway, she has this poem in which she celebrates her friends and the original quote is "I will not think any less of you if you do not come to this meeting." In the same poem another friend is celebrated for knowing "that the sound of a woman coming (and probably not through the rye, either - Ed.)is better than the sound of a B52" which is a very Woodstock quote but none the worse for that.I think that deliberate celebration of friends is a good project because, if you don't do it, there is a fair chance that a funeral (yours or theirs)will come in the way. There is another problem - the need put it on record occurs to you most sharply if they become seriously ill and then you don't want to do it because it may make them think "I am on the way out this time - here they all are with their premature obituaries, I wish they would leave me in peace." So I think Walker had it right, get on with it now.