A Friend In Need
Thursday is National Best Friends Day, and I am going to celebrate it
with my best friend Jon
Stewart. (He was downgraded from "husband" after he got married
without even checking to see if I existed.)
I'm also going to honor those of you who have taken time out from your own
busy/empty love lives to show concern for a friend in need of a busier/emptier
love life. Of course, sometimes said "concern" is more for your eardrums
than for his/her eternal happiness, but still. You're writing to figure out
how to handle it -- whatever "it" is -- best. Which
is what makes you guys the best friends of all.
Especially because: a friend who's anyone but That Bad Person is a friend,
indeed. Whether or not you "succeed" in helping someone bail, it does,
I promise, make a difference to your friend to feel that friendly love, tough
though it may need be. Being "right," being the one who got him/her
away, and being a friend are all unrelated. Hint: go for the latter.
In that spirit, here's more from the best friend files:
Bottom line: tell them how you feel, not what to do. Because remember,
as Bridget Jones' non-smug-married friend
Magda observes, "People's relationships are quite mysterious. No one from
the outside ever really understands what makes them work."
Okay? Now leave Jon and me alone.
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