Looking for prompts

I've hit a dry spell for creative output lately, and I miss it - so am resorting to asking myself direct questions to answer, just to force something out of me. For prompts, I will be stealing directly from the Q&A website of an actor I do a bit of work for. Over the past few years, I've been impressed with some of the insightful answers that he is able to mine from an apparent deep core, and always on the fly. I don't claim that kind of depth, and am not going to compete for wit or significance. I just want some words to flow.

What's better: old friends, or new friends, and why?

This is the kind of question that I hate, having to choose between choices that each have strong merit. I see pros and cons to both. Old friends know your stories, your battle and eventual victory over puberty perhaps, or the fears and tears you secretly confessed the day before a wedding, or the month before childbirth. They are the golden few who have chosen to love DESPITE, rather than BECAUSE. They are the loyal, the truthful, the kind.

New friends bring the joy of having someone discover your gifts anew; they bring the glorious tabula rasa, the new beginning, the thrill of starting over with someone whom you've not yet hurt, or betrayed, or annoyed. There's something cleansing in two people marking a fresh, new map that appears between them; a land mine here, a treasure buried there. I like the hope and promise new friends bring and I also like the solidity and freedom in my choice to continue to pursue the friendship or to gently acknowledge that it didn't work out, no hard feelings. I like feeling free from the agonies of teenage bonding rituals and the desperation of not belonging. I like the confidence that my age brings my inner security in knowing what is best for me.

I cherish my old friends and I adore meeting and learning new possibilities, new combinations of personality traits and daily interests. Life is good this way. But if I absolutely HAD to chose, it would be old friends. Cultivations of a lifetime bring a richness not available elsewhere and one would be foolish not to guard them constantly and nourish them often.

Quote of the day: The baby was in diapers that should have been changed two game shows ago. Anna Quinlan - "Blessings"
Chosen because what a perfect way to describe a certain type of mother in four words, "two game shows ago." In an instant, I see her, I know her, I see their future laid out before them if nothing changes. Brilliant.