fatrockstar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fatrockstar) wrote2007-12-15 01:26 pm
fatrockstar) wrote2007-12-15 01:26 pm
Entry tags:
"Friendship is not a contract"
The title is not terribly accurate for this blog post. Ethan wrote a song titled "Friendship (is Not a Contract)" for the band, and it's not one of his best. Reluctant to explain the motivation behind his lyrics, he said the song was inspired by his divorce experience, namely the paperwork involved in breaking his commitment contract. When it comes down to it, marriage is a contract. There is no paperwork involved in being "just a friend," and a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
I've been doing a lot of reading about anger and forgiveness, both of them have a common theme of "letting go." It's so very easy to tell ourselves we forgive someone and then turn around and assign all the blame for a wrongdoing on them as if we never had anything at all to do with it. That might be easier, but it's far from healthy. Forgiveness is a gift to oneself. It does not condone anything. It's a personal choice one makes.
With reading comes a lot of thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know) about my role in the current drama. While I am far from shouldering all the blame, I am not completely without any. As with any crisis I've been doing a lot of "what did I do to deserve this bullshit?" and finding it hard to come up with any obvious answers.
So what did I do to deserve this bullshit? I can only think of a couple of things, but they are ambiguous at best. No one incident brought me to this place in my life. Of the last nine years of our friendship, only about half of that time was spent being completely honest with her. Before that I always gave her my "awesome face," because I had all the answers. I didn't want her to see the side of me that worried constantly, or experienced random panic attacks. Why? Because I honestly didn't think she could handle it, and she hadn't been one to reveal much of herself to me, either. When Garret and I went through our first big crisis I started to bare a little more of my soul. I still kept my "awesome face," it was just more apparent that I needed a friend instead of needing to be one.
As time went on I may have leaned on Jennifer a bit more than she could handle. I don't think that was the problem, though. Actually, I don't think that's very close to the truth. What would be closer is to say that as time went on I realized that she wasn't very wise about a lot of things and I may have started treating her like she was inferior to me. In a way, she IS inferior: She's uneducated, inexperienced, and incredibly naive about her body. The only thing she has that I might be jealous of is her paycheck. However, I have a lot she is jealous of. I won't go into detail about any of them because those of you in my inner sanctum already know what they are.
So I've been unfair to someone I considered a friend. I didn't realize I was doing it, it was unconscious behavior. She never once spoke up to me and said "Wynne, don't talk to me like I'm stupid." The only thing she ever spoke up to me about was affirming that my husband did not want children and I should "suck it up and move on," and even that was said with as little emotion as possible. I imagine that her growing resentment of me pushed her to the point of stabbing me in the back. I also imagine that I fueled that resentment without realizing it. For that I apologize.
If you are my friend and I have mistreated you in the past I am very sorry. There is a 99.9% chance I did it unintentionally and without malice. I respect my friendships -- all of them -- and would never dishonor any one of my friends in the way I have been recently. My only expectations in friendship is honesty, preferably the in-person kind.
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I've been doing a lot of reading about anger and forgiveness, both of them have a common theme of "letting go." It's so very easy to tell ourselves we forgive someone and then turn around and assign all the blame for a wrongdoing on them as if we never had anything at all to do with it. That might be easier, but it's far from healthy. Forgiveness is a gift to oneself. It does not condone anything. It's a personal choice one makes.
With reading comes a lot of thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know) about my role in the current drama. While I am far from shouldering all the blame, I am not completely without any. As with any crisis I've been doing a lot of "what did I do to deserve this bullshit?" and finding it hard to come up with any obvious answers.
So what did I do to deserve this bullshit? I can only think of a couple of things, but they are ambiguous at best. No one incident brought me to this place in my life. Of the last nine years of our friendship, only about half of that time was spent being completely honest with her. Before that I always gave her my "awesome face," because I had all the answers. I didn't want her to see the side of me that worried constantly, or experienced random panic attacks. Why? Because I honestly didn't think she could handle it, and she hadn't been one to reveal much of herself to me, either. When Garret and I went through our first big crisis I started to bare a little more of my soul. I still kept my "awesome face," it was just more apparent that I needed a friend instead of needing to be one.
As time went on I may have leaned on Jennifer a bit more than she could handle. I don't think that was the problem, though. Actually, I don't think that's very close to the truth. What would be closer is to say that as time went on I realized that she wasn't very wise about a lot of things and I may have started treating her like she was inferior to me. In a way, she IS inferior: She's uneducated, inexperienced, and incredibly naive about her body. The only thing she has that I might be jealous of is her paycheck. However, I have a lot she is jealous of. I won't go into detail about any of them because those of you in my inner sanctum already know what they are.
So I've been unfair to someone I considered a friend. I didn't realize I was doing it, it was unconscious behavior. She never once spoke up to me and said "Wynne, don't talk to me like I'm stupid." The only thing she ever spoke up to me about was affirming that my husband did not want children and I should "suck it up and move on," and even that was said with as little emotion as possible. I imagine that her growing resentment of me pushed her to the point of stabbing me in the back. I also imagine that I fueled that resentment without realizing it. For that I apologize.
If you are my friend and I have mistreated you in the past I am very sorry. There is a 99.9% chance I did it unintentionally and without malice. I respect my friendships -- all of them -- and would never dishonor any one of my friends in the way I have been recently. My only expectations in friendship is honesty, preferably the in-person kind.
Comments are screened.