Many of us are blessed to have wise friends or mentors that keep
us grounded - or at least try to do so. They're fortresses in the midst
of chaos. Yesterday, I could have used one.
My bride and I had two separate disagreements that devolved into
arguments which by nightfall were upgraded to Class 3 hurricanes with
crushed spirits and remorse but no apologies . The latter was uncommon
for us. After a poor night of sleep and lots of reflection, I realized my
old friend Bill could have rescued us. He would have listened very
attentively. Then he would have let out a long "Hmmm" followed by
something simple like - "From what I've heard, it seems like each of you
were mostly right." Then he would have asked a simple but thoroughly
annoying question such as - "Did I just hear correctly that you both had
major spats with your best friend over five minutes of waiting, and one
brief scene in a movie?"
As I stepped back I would have realized he was right.... and then
recognized that the proverbial slugfest we had endured, had way more
to do with the particularly challenging stuff we were living through than
any wrongs committed by either of us.
Sometimes it's even healthy to pretend that we have a wise friend to
bounce thoughts off of - some of their wisdom might still be with us,
even if they're not.
