How many of us have them?
Friends!
Ones you can depend on!
...you can look it up again and again, but the dictionary doesn't know the meaning of friends.
Those are the immortal words of the legendary hip-hop group Whodini. I've always loved that song. Whenever I would hear that song, my shoulders would get to bouncing, my head would start swaying, my arms would begin to move as if I was on stage as a part of the group with a tight sparkling suit and wide-brimmed cowboy hat. I would rap all the words:
Those are the immortal words of the legendary hip-hop group Whodini. I've always loved that song. Whenever I would hear that song, my shoulders would get to bouncing, my head would start swaying, my arms would begin to move as if I was on stage as a part of the group with a tight sparkling suit and wide-brimmed cowboy hat. I would rap all the words:
Homeboys through the Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall And then there's some we wish we never knew at all. And this list goes on, again and again. But these are the people that we call friends
But it's not until recently that I started to reassess those words. See, I've always kept a small circle of people that I call friends. There are people that I'm cool with. There are people that I kinda like. There are those that I tolerate and those I don't entirely hate. Now, I can be friendly to all of these people, but that doesn't make them my friend. The majority of my friends are old school. We have memories of being middle-school kleptomaniacs stealing boxing gloves out of sporting goods stores. We can laugh at the memory of me tossing a basket of ketchup drenched French fries in the face of a rude bowling alley employee. We have recollections of college days that I dare not mention in this post. (People have real jobs now.)
And while it takes me a while to truly trust someone, I felt that 10, 15, 22 years might be enough. Well, some events that transpired recently have caused me to question those seemingly unbreakable bonds.
I should have listened to Shakespeare. He told me all about friends in Julius Caesar. I mean Julius' best friend Brutus put that final dagger in his back. And Othello...oh, Othello! Othello's boy, Iago, whom he trusted, cased him up something awful. And the scary thing is that you never really find out why Iago was so evil.
And like Othello, I trusted these friends, these allies, these confidants to no end. But much to my chagrin, they treated me like they didn't even know me. Better yet, they treated me with anger and contempt: total disrespect.
And disrespect is not usually tolerated. Just ask the guy with hot fries in his face at the bowling alley. But I guess my reaction to the infraction was kinda like being a kid and your uncle hitting you really hard in your chest or your mom putting all her might into that last swing of the belt. You wanna scream. You try to make the sound come out, but the only things you can produce are breaths and ugly faces. You squirm and move and a single tear traces your cheek. You want to, but you can't speak. You wanna play hard and take it. But it hurts too much; you can't fake it. But you can't respond the way you want in your mind; you just endure the pain until it subsides. (My bad. Unintentional poetical tangent.)
Because I didn't expect it, it cut me deep. And had it been someone I didn't call my friend, my boy, Marlin, might be using his Florida Bar card to come get me out of the County.
But I've matured and realized that the beautiful lady we all know as Karma will take care of things.
And, from this wonderful situation, I've learned a couple things.
1. To paraphrase JT Money of the Poison Clan, "Put shit past no one." I doubt if I'll ever be completely caught off guard again. Unless I find out tomorrow that my mother is a lesbian devil-worshipper. That might get me.
2. Even between friends, you have to sometimes be ego-centric. As friends, you think that you should be more selfless. Well, in situations like mine, that selflessness left me by myself.
3. Whodini is still one of the hardest hip-hop groups to ever do it. The Freaks Come Out At Night, One Love, Big Mouth...classics!
So, I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust people. I'm not even saying that I won't get over how dirty they did me. I am saying...REMEMBER JULIUS CAESAR!
And while it takes me a while to truly trust someone, I felt that 10, 15, 22 years might be enough. Well, some events that transpired recently have caused me to question those seemingly unbreakable bonds.
I should have listened to Shakespeare. He told me all about friends in Julius Caesar. I mean Julius' best friend Brutus put that final dagger in his back. And Othello...oh, Othello! Othello's boy, Iago, whom he trusted, cased him up something awful. And the scary thing is that you never really find out why Iago was so evil.
And like Othello, I trusted these friends, these allies, these confidants to no end. But much to my chagrin, they treated me like they didn't even know me. Better yet, they treated me with anger and contempt: total disrespect.
And disrespect is not usually tolerated. Just ask the guy with hot fries in his face at the bowling alley. But I guess my reaction to the infraction was kinda like being a kid and your uncle hitting you really hard in your chest or your mom putting all her might into that last swing of the belt. You wanna scream. You try to make the sound come out, but the only things you can produce are breaths and ugly faces. You squirm and move and a single tear traces your cheek. You want to, but you can't speak. You wanna play hard and take it. But it hurts too much; you can't fake it. But you can't respond the way you want in your mind; you just endure the pain until it subsides. (My bad. Unintentional poetical tangent.)
Because I didn't expect it, it cut me deep. And had it been someone I didn't call my friend, my boy, Marlin, might be using his Florida Bar card to come get me out of the County.
But I've matured and realized that the beautiful lady we all know as Karma will take care of things.
And, from this wonderful situation, I've learned a couple things.
1. To paraphrase JT Money of the Poison Clan, "Put shit past no one." I doubt if I'll ever be completely caught off guard again. Unless I find out tomorrow that my mother is a lesbian devil-worshipper. That might get me.
2. Even between friends, you have to sometimes be ego-centric. As friends, you think that you should be more selfless. Well, in situations like mine, that selflessness left me by myself.
3. Whodini is still one of the hardest hip-hop groups to ever do it. The Freaks Come Out At Night, One Love, Big Mouth...classics!
So, I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust people. I'm not even saying that I won't get over how dirty they did me. I am saying...REMEMBER JULIUS CAESAR!
3 comments:
Your posts never disappoint in making me smile. And don't get me started on the ego-centric/ sefless topic - you know where I stand!
:'(
Not a Happy-Sad, a Sad-Sad.
Seriously, though, tossing the fries in someone's face? A bit excessive, I would say.
Breathe in, breathe out, repeat until calm :-)
Sorry you had to experience(curious to know what)that which you endured. I say kick them in the ding-dings!
Re: Iago, he was just hating on Othello because he had a badder chick, a better position, a smoother complexion, and everyone loved him :-)
“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope.”
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