A Lament for Friends Lost
It is Saturday, April 12th, and it doesn’t feel like it’s been one week since Melissa and I were in Vegas. My sense of the passage of time doesn’t work very well anymore. We walked with the protest in Vegas, but that could have been a yesterday, or maybe a month ago. There is another protest next week, and if I can attend, I bet that the Vegas protest will feel like last year.
There is nothing wrong with my memory. In fact, I have a very long, detailed memory, which is one of the things that makes me valuable at work. It helps with my writing, too. My sense of when is off, though, which is a problem when trying to maintain relationships.
There are people I think about all the time that I haven’t spoken with for years. There are people that I spent time with decades ago that are still an influence in my life today. To say that I miss these people is an understatement. Many of them would see me as a stranger if I were to cross paths with them again tomorrow, and though we would be strangers, despite the span of miles and years, I would still feel excitement at seeing them again, and pain for the reminder that we are no longer close.
With almost every one of those relationships, it is my fault that we have grown apart. I am responsible for the long silences. I could have called, wrote a message, or reached out, but I didn’t. It didn’t occur to me. I thought I saw them just a few days ago, when it was actually a few years, and they’ve moved on.
I’m well into the back half of my life, and I can count on one hand the number of people with whom I’m still close. I have a lot of friendships that have become acquaintances, and that’s okay, but there are people I thought I’d grow old with. In honor of those folks, and without naming names, I want to share some thoughts as a kind of tribute to people that are no longer meaningfully in my life.
One, you were my best friend. We shared art and music and stories, and I opened up to you about things I never shared with anyone else. We harmonized, literally and figuratively. At a certain point, it seemed like I grew up and you remained Peter Pan. I did try to keep things alive between us, but something happened. I was a little too successful, and you went through painful hardship without me, and I think you became a little bit jealous. Having gone through my own hardships, I couldn’t understand why. My attempts to help only made things worse, and now my presence makes you sad and uncomfortable. You’re one of the people I miss the most, and I wish I could tell you that I still love you.
Two, you were one of the few people that truly let me cry when I needed to. You and I lifted each other up, and we hurt each other, and we probably could have gone through that cycle our entire lives, but some walls are built out of scars. We’re too old for that nonsense, now. I do hear from you from time to time, but you’re not the person I remember any more than I’m the person you remember. Too much has happened. We’re as much strangers to each other as we would be to ourselves if we were to go back in time. And yet, we contain the people we once were. We build our lives on top of the corpse of our youth. What would happen to the foundation if we were to reanimate those old bones and make them dance and sing once again?
Three, you used to inspire me. I looked up to you. In some ways, I moved my life around so that I could be in your orbit, but you changed while we were still sharing space. We had so much in common, and enough differences that we could talk for hours without getting bored. You challenged me in good ways, and made me grow without losing touch with who I am. What the hell happened to you, man? It’s like you and I swapped places, but in trying to achieve what I did at an early age, you gave up the most important aspects of that which you seek. To be less myopic: if you seek to make Jesus a central pillar in your life, you should become more forgiving, more loving, and more charitable. You claim Jesus, but eschew the qualities of Christ, and that more than anything is why you and I are no longer friends.
Four. I think of you often, and at this point, I wish for a better closure. You were always cool. Boisterous. Popular. Bigger-than-life. We had such a great friendship for so long, which from my perspective, is wild because I have never seen myself as being all that cool. Your greatest flaw is that when you look back, you only see the bad times and the faults. This makes it easy for you to slam the door and cut the cord. All I want from you these days is a chance to hang out one last time, give you a stack of my books, and then quietly close the door with a good memory. I guess I’m still hopeful that we would be friends again, but I know the reality.
Five. We have always been matter and anti-matter, which has led to some cataclysmic and destructive times. And yet, we would dust ourselves off, come back together, and give each other energy. We’ve been there for each other, but you have always taken me for granted. We smile and share pleasantries now more often than share time and make memories. You’re not that far away, and yet I miss you just the same.
I think that’s enough for now. There are many others I can talk about obliquely. If you’re reading this, I’m almost certainly not talking about you. But if you see yourself in any of these descriptions, maybe we should talk. Maybe we should have a meal together, make some memories, and actually be friends.
If you’re like me and you have trouble perceiving the passage of time, take this post as a reminder to reach out to the people you care about, so you don’t find yourself in your 50s wondering where everyone went.