Friday, February 21, 2014

people, friends, and strangers


The people around us are important.  They have the power to make us happy or sad or annoyed.  We count on them to help us through rough spots.  Consequently, they count on us.  Loving my friends is pretty much one of the most important things I do.


In Psalms it says that "a friend loves at all times".  That's sorta my motto when it comes to friendship--to treat everyone like family.  My friends and I share books, laughs, games, and snacks.  Pretty much, they're some of the most prominent people in my life.  
But, see, the people who you hang out with aren't the only people in the world.
There was this kid who would come to our school, and everyone teased him.  For the time being, I'll call him Bob.  He had friends; people liked him and hung out with him.  But most of my friends were relentless, and they'd joke about him when he wasn't around, and I started to wonder: what if this sort of thing really hurts him?  What if he just doesn't let on for our sake?
There was another kid a lot like Bob--let's call him Fred--who annoyed everyone.  Nobody liked him, everybody called him a bully, even his friends barely tolerated him.  It was like nobody was willing to look closer at him, just because they didn't like him.  He wasn't even that mean, as far as I could see.
So I guess what I'm saying is, maybe we should look harder.  Maybe we should try harder.  We don't know everything about everyone, even people who are our friends.  in the words of Wendy Mass, "Be kind, for everyone you meet it fighting a war you know nothing about."
Try "Why We Fight"
By the Decemberists.
Love,
Firefly

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