Plain. And. Simple.

I have learned that one can learn a lot from watching TV and it is no secret that in my free time, I watch a lot of it.  I am not talking about Jersey Shore or Ed, Edd, and Eddy, though I am sure there is some lesson to be learned from shows like that, probably to finish high school and make something of yourself, but that is another post.   It isn’t as if I am watching top rated foreign films or documentaries, but I do watch things that engage my thoughts, and there is a little something to be said about night time dramas or dare I refer to them as soap operas.

Tonight for instance, I was watching a show that made me think about relationships.  This particular episode was between friends, but more like the kind of friend you think of as the family you choose and not the "fair weather friend".  Friend “A” was being very secretive and going through a very difficult, morally questionable time, if you knew both sides of the story.  Often times we are only privy to one side of the story or a partial side of two stories and we tend to take sides quickly and hastily, maybe that is why we aren't able to have more unconditional relationships.  But, what surprised me and made me think a little more about relationships was that friend “B” simply told friend “A” that she was there for them, whenever they needed to talk.  Plain. And. Simple. 

How often do we find ourselves in a relationship that isn’t plain and simple?  That the love/friendship isn’t unconditional?  A relationship certainly should be easy; it shouldn’t be so much work and if it is when do you decide to let that person live in your heart by not in your life?

You know, I had a friendship that was like that--Plain. And. Simple.  Until it wasn’t.  It became not plain and not simple for friend “A” to remain in the same state of friendship as I, I could be bitter but I'm not.  When friend “A” decides that things can go back to the way that they were, I will be here for them whenever they need to talk.  There will be no judgment, no resentment, no anger, just me-being here or there.  The best part is I know that friend “A” knows this, one day they will pick up the phone, send an email or smoke signal and I will just be “there”, we will pick up just as we left it.

This may sound somewhat vain of me to say, and I don’t intend it to, but in my case, friend “A” is lucky.  I have encountered many people in my life that are a LOT of work.  They may walk the walk and talk the talk but at the end of the day if you don’t comply with their expectations you better believe you will have some ‘splaining to do, or better yet, they will blame you.  Out the window just went Plain. And. Simple. 

Life got much easier for me once I started accepting that people were the way they were and you either accept it or you move on.  Some people I have moved on from, some, I keep at arms length and some are just others.  I have decided that at the end of the day I may only have a handful of people and I am okay with that, some are here because I have chosen them and they have chosen me, some are here because we are bound by blood and others are here because they were just meant to be.