Whenever You Need Somebody

Not many would realize, but as hard as it is to find somebody to love, it's harder to find a friend who really stands by you through it all.
Too many "friends" only talk to us only because they are bored, or because they have problems and need to talk to anyone they can find about it.
The sad reality is that when you're not really required by someone, they won't call upon you in the same way they did when they were in need.
And worse still, they won't be available when it comes your turn to be supported in your time of trauma.

If you need to pause for a moment to examine our relationship, then what I said above probably applies to you.

In the past, I've criticised many for just that. The Fair Weather, "A friend in need is a friend indeed" sort of people. However, as we grow older, and just like how we eventually come to the realization that love is nothing more than an overrated chemical reaction that causes our pockets to empty too quickly, we realize that true friends do not exist.

There will be friends who are ever-present, to the extent that you don't really bother about them. There will be the ones that come and go. There will be the ones that you want to mean something to, but never do. And there'll be the ones whom you've never really spoken to more than 5 times and have nothing more to say to than "how's life?"

Unfortunately, a "true" friend as defined by the same nonsensical thoughts that define "true" love and all the chain emails we receive with a bajillion smileys, is ficticious. We're more likely to get beamed up by Venutians and meet Jesus on the far side of the moon.

I'm too old for all this. I am but a simple person. It doesn't matter to me anymore. To you who comes and goes in my life, I don't hold it against you any longer. When you return, I will welcome you with the knowledge of your eventual departure. And when you leave, I let you go with all my blessings and await the day when you come back again. Rest assured that I'll be around as I always am to listen to you and make a lousy attempt at making you feel better, and then to tell you once again that you need not fear for you'll never walk alone.

Kurt (...and I was drinking you goodbye.)