Words, Pain, and Friendship

Friendships perish by word of mouth. Expressions, sometimes more than actions, can sink a relationship like a weathered vessel. Actions, yes, are the precipitant to conflicts, but, at many times, words often seal the deal. Many times we speak before we talk, forgetting that once words leave our mouths they can never return. There is truth in the aged maxim which likens words to toothpaste squeezed out of the tube – once out, it can never be put back in. we’ve all said and done things we immediately regret; we’ve all had things said and done to us that we immediately despise. How does one begin to forgive either? The greatest slight man can do to man is injustice. Words oft cause wounds which are not easily healed or forgiven, despite how many bandages one puts on it. The natural progression of time doesn’t permit one to move backward. Once the fragile and mutual trust and respect in a friendship is broken, all that is left is wariness and uncertainty. There will always be that subtle awkwardness, that back-of-the-mind feeling that the ill done might not be the last transgression. Two might return to friendship, but it will not be like the first. It is not in the nature of man to wholly and completely offer total and absolute forgiveness – that attribute belongs only to God.

To Thine Own Self Be True

There are no merits in doing stupid things. Many times we enjoy living for the moment; but when that moment ends and the dust settles, all we are left with is the cold realization that we’ve taken two punishing steps backwards. If morally sound behavior escapes you in the search for amusement or merriment, one cannot blame one’s societies’ lack of good things but rather ones moral conditioning. Over the course of a lifetime, and through our varying social circles, we condition ourselves to accepting the mindset that certain thought patterns and ways-of-life are acceptable; willingly blinding ourselves to the fatal flaws inherent in each of them. Much of this is the result of peer pressure, the social force to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted. The simple response to this dilemma is as Shakespeare put it in his 16^th century play Hamlet, “to thine own self be true.” Only in life does man coexist with his peers. In death he is forced to report on and defend all of his life choices. When facing eternity, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Following that famous quote, Shakespeare continues with “thou cannot then be false to any man.” The absence of falsity to others requires being utterly truthful to ourselves. Maybe if society valued truth and individuals were truthful to themselves there would be less of a struggle to clone someone else image and to fit in. only we can define ourselves.