You really wouldn't want to live without it, but your relationship is parasitic.
When life is good your friend aspirin sits in its bottle on the self, out of sight, out of mind.
Maybe you'll maintain a casual relationship, checking the expiration date, or making sure there's still some aspirin in the bottle.
As long as life is good, you don't really care.
But when that pain comes, and it always does in life, you run for that bottle.
What sweet peace comes from knowing that your dear friend aspirin is there for you, even though you are not there for it.
Now think of your friends. How many of them are nothing more than a bottle of aspirin to you? Or to how many of them are you the bottle?
I know I'm some people's bottle. I can also think of a few people I keep around as a bottle.
Now, I don't really mind being someone's bottle of aspirin, but am ashamed to think I use some people like that.
Why do I abhor taking advantage of others but am disposed to willfully allow my self to be taken advantage of?
It is flattering to me that someone would turn to me in a time of need. Those are vulnerable times, and to turn to someone usually requires a fair amount of trust (except in times of desperation).
Plus, I have had seasons of pain in my life, and many of those were spent alone. I know how it feels. And while I hold those moments dear because they have in a large part formed the person I am, but I would not wish them upon anyone.
For that reason I'll sit on the shelf until needed.
Yet, I'm not content to maintain the aspirin bottle relationships in my life. I think if people are good enough for me to call in bad times, they are good enough for me to call in the good times too. I want to either build up those relationships, or cut them off completely.
And I'm not about to start giving up friends.
How about you?
Posts
2 comments:
i found the topic for this post interesting, since i have been having similar thoughts recently. not necesarily the same as your "asprin bottle" idea, but along the lines of friends, and what/who actually counts as a friend. i came to the conclusion that maybe we use the word incorrectly, or to loosely. so, what is a "friend", according facebook, i have 56 of them apparently, but yet i still have a hard time finding someone to hang out with or go do stuff with. then i think of when i am at work, and i am surrounded by people that often hold the safety of my life in their hands. but they are just co workers, many of them i wont keep in touch with once the season ends. then i think of the people who when they call me i just want to ignore their call, and i wonder how many feel the same when i dial. how may people do i consider friends, but they dont feel the same way, and vice versa. i have come to the conclusion that we use the word friend to often, many times other words like acquantance, associate , and family would better describe the relationship. since friend is used so widely and inacurately at this time, i think we should turn away from the word. "so to me friend is a four letter word"
Nice cake reference.
I think people put way too much stock into facebook. But in the end collecting facebook friends is like collecting phone numbers that you never use. Its ridiculous. And, if you really have no intention of pursuing a relationship, it can be hurtful to the other person.
And I agree 100%. Family has little to do with blood. I've friends who are family, and family who are only friends, if that.
Post a Comment