"Friendships are in a tremendous flux." This phrase has stuck in my mind over the weekend. Amen to that.
Friendships dissolving into thin air, grudges, general lack of goodwill or being prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. I am in my 50s and am not, admittedly, ever likely to be a candidate for canonisation. I've had my fair share of friendships ending over the years either through 'natural wastage' or falling out. But the last five or six years have been off the charts. Is it my age or is it *the age* ? Or maybe a bit of both...
Again, maybe this is due to *my* age rather than *the age* but making new friends these days is also very hard. There have been a few promising starts only for them to end up going south. I have discovered that it hasn't automatically followed that people who share my covidian dissident views are people I could establish friendships with. Sadly I haven't found a new "tribe". I am very lucky however that three of my closest friends also chose, independently of me, to refuse the 'intervention'. So I did not go it quite alone.
As for the rest of my close friends and relatives, I am trying where possible to repair relations with them. Their compliance and complacence (in my view) disappointed me. I know I have resentments and I am trying to let go of them. I cannot complain about unforgiving times without at least trying to find some forgiveness in my heart also.
But I am no longer actively working to maintain links with many wider acquaintances with whom I no longer feel I have anything common. It just no longer seems like a good investment of my time (if it ever was) and I note that they are not reaching out to me either!
Anyway, thank you for your thoughts. You are definitely not alone navigating the flux!
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branchandroot
Re: Where is the virus steering us?
Date: 2024-07-15 01:05 pm (UTC)Friendships dissolving into thin air, grudges, general lack of goodwill or being prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. I am in my 50s and am not, admittedly, ever likely to be a candidate for canonisation. I've had my fair share of friendships ending over the years either through 'natural wastage' or falling out. But the last five or six years have been off the charts. Is it my age or is it *the age* ? Or maybe a bit of both...
Again, maybe this is due to *my* age rather than *the age* but making new friends these days is also very hard. There have been a few promising starts only for them to end up going south. I have discovered that it hasn't automatically followed that people who share my covidian dissident views are people I could establish friendships with. Sadly I haven't found a new "tribe". I am very lucky however that three of my closest friends also chose, independently of me, to refuse the 'intervention'. So I did not go it quite alone.
As for the rest of my close friends and relatives, I am trying where possible to repair relations with them. Their compliance and complacence (in my view) disappointed me. I know I have resentments and I am trying to let go of them. I cannot complain about unforgiving times without at least trying to find some forgiveness in my heart also.
But I am no longer actively working to maintain links with many wider acquaintances with whom I no longer feel I have anything common. It just no longer seems like a good investment of my time (if it ever was) and I note that they are not reaching out to me either!
Anyway, thank you for your thoughts. You are definitely not alone navigating the flux!