While doing some research for this blog, I found online the advice given by a Greek proverb:
“Friends should be few but good.”
Young people today grow up with similar word compellations resounding in their ears. It starts in middle school (appropriate timing) and echoes through high school. In my own personal experience, this mantra died a little in college (since at University anybody who’s anybody is a friend). However once you flip the tassel and you don’t live within a 5 minute radius of everyone you know, you come to truly understand the fact that most people are in your life for a season. There are only a few who will be there with you from the time you meet them, til the time you meet your Maker. You may come to realize that even though we are equipped with facebook and mobile phones, you are not going to have the same caliber of friendship that you presently do. And you further realize that soon you will have to start the friendship making process All. Over. Again. -There sneaks that proverb up in your head, reverberating in your ears as if someone outside you were actually speaking it, “friends should be few but good.”
It sounds so wonderful. All you have to do is find a few good people, no less than one, no more than many. Sounds doable, wonderful actually. Sounds ambiguous but we can move past that. Sounds like I only need to find a few people to talk with in my everyday life. To whinge at when the feces hits the oscillator. To be vulnerable with when I’m feeling low and like crap and just want to spontaneously combust on the bus whilst coming home from work and then maybe people will be curious about my terrible, horrible, no good very bad day (Alexander is not alone on this one…).
Person 1: “Look at that girl- she just combusted spontaneously on the Metro. Her day must have been really bad”.
Person 2: “I didn’t even notice her until she exploded. Man, I wish I would have been more attentive to her circumstances before she was a pile of sporadically placed innards”.
(Oh right like I’m the only one who while going through a trial dreams outrageous exits where people finally are paying attention to me and my needs. Please).
Oh who am I kidding? It sounds like a sad existence. To be completely honest with you (which, if not now when?) I must say that I have always found proverbs like this to be for the weak sauce- a sad excuse for the un-relatable to justify why they can only find a few people who will choose to communicate with them on a regular basis.
Out of all the crap that I have been through in my life (which in the grand scheme of things is not much) I have had the honor and the privilege of having numerous really, really good friends standing with me, fighting for me, and laughing at me. In all seasons of my existence (well middle school and after), I have an eclectic collection of very treasured men and women who put their hearts and souls on the table for everyone to see. Exposing their strengths and flaws and choosing to love each other (and me!) no matter what. While every single one of their friendships has molded my life- made me wittier, more lovable, more relatable, more comical, more approachable- this blog is not about them. But you should know that all the decisions I make today, I make with a foundation in Christ and an unshakable support system from my fellow earthlings. My cyberspace real estate would be much duller without the influence of the aforementioned.
Thought you should know.
