The ties that grind

"I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the solidest things we know." R W Emerson.

I have had a number of conversations with friends of late where the friendship itself has been tested by disagreement or by a sense of sleight (real or imagined). One person has spectacularly vanished from the radar over a disagreement that I have to say was of no great importance to me but plainly was sufficient to end the regular conversations we had had for the other party.

But in the main I find that the best friendships - which I characterise as conversations - are those that are durable in every sense of the word: able to be enjoyed over time because they are interesting and well made and able to take the hard knocks of strong wills and differing ideas. It is the exchange of ideas that I like the most.

When I said that friendships had been tested. I am glad to say that, in the main, they have not proven to be wanting and, even if I miss the conversations with the friend who has chosen to absent herself I won't make the assumption that it is permanent and that, maybe, she just needs time to regain composure to rejoin the fray. I hope so.

I embedded the SickPuppies Free Hugs video (which has added 12 million views on You Tube since I last posted it).

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