With a Little....

Ignore the random underlines. Again. Still.

Part 2!! You didn't know I was doing a To Be Continued...did you? I didn't either, so we're completely on the same page. It's sort of like the ending to Back to the Future...they didn't exactly know it would be a trilogy, but they left it open just in case. If you're wondering, unfortunately Crispin Glover isn't in my Part 2, either. Sad, I realize.

No, this blog isn't about Back to the Future.

I'm back to friendship and connections. On a recent morning having coffee with my mother, she broke out some insane wisdom and understanding. For a minute I thought, "has she become a Buddhist, or has she just started quoting those Buddhist passages I see sometimes on Facebook?"

We were talking about friendship, and the lengths that real friends should go to in order to help one another. She said something along the lines of "Inconvenience is temporary. If you let a little inconvenience stop you from helping a friend, you're saying that a temporary feeling of discomfort is too much for you to withstand, so you aren't going to help them. What kind of a friend does that?" I'm paraphrasing. I was tired and on my first coffee, so I didn't take the clearest mental notes. She was much more eloquent than this.

Commenting in this manner was timely, because I have been pondering ephemeral moments of importance. When I said I realized that essentially everything is impermanent, everything started to make sense for me. Taking on temporary inconveniences in order to help someone you love goes hand in hand with this idea. When you look at it like that, the word "inconvenience" diminishes. "Opportunity" becomes more pertinent.

I have the opportunity at times to help my friends, and I'm more grateful for that than almost anything. I wouldn't trade my moments of inconvenience for the world, and I realize that my friends having endured inconvenience for me is the greatest gift I have ever received. Some of the very best moments in my friendships have been when I was the one to receive the "help me" call in the middle of the night for a drunk pick up, for a run to the hospital, for a...hmmm hmmm...alibi.   Not because I wanted see my friends in those positions, but because I was trusted enough to be the one to see them while vulnerable.


Now, where's the Skeptic? Great question. Your humble narrator is skeptical about many, many things, but on this particular topic, I have zero cynicism. So shoot me. Point being...I get by with a little help from my friends, but also...with a little help TO my friends.


Now for the full song, with the amazing, crazy Mr. Cocker. Man, I love this song.



Skeptically Yours.