Romance may be overrated, Try friendship

I love music, as does one of my work buddies.

One day, he was so eager to share one of his ear buds with me so I could also enjoy the song he was vibing to.

I declined.

He couldn’t understand it.

“Come on now, it’s just a song.”

Well, there are so many songs I used to love so much, but which I can no longer listen to today because they remind me of a past relationship that didn’t end too well.

Friendship now separated by awkwardness.

A romantic attachment that now leaves a void in my heart.

I was dealing with two such situations at the time. One was with an older friend I admired and respected so much.

Mr Work Buddy is another older friend. We never run out of interesting things to talk or argue about, and I’ve come to find his general presence reassuring even on my craziest days.

One day I looked at him and confessed sadly that I had a feeling we would not be friends for much longer.

I was still paranoid from my immediate past experience with a friendship like his that just gone cold.

So I refused to take the earbud he offered me. We connected on many levels, and I knew I would fall in love with the song. I didn’t need a new song to avoid for the rest of my life.

People think love relationships are the most cumbersome to tend.

But try friendship; one where you absolutely care about the other person and feel a sense of abandonment from being so close to them without being able to talk as you used to.

And then the most exhausting ones — where you genuinely respect and look out for each other, but with little sparks of mutual attraction that leave you both now tiptoeing around your feelings.

Friendships are a little more complicated than we care to admit, with dynamics sometimes more tricky or profound than those found in many love relationships.

This reminds me of David and Jonathan in the Bible, of their bromance so deep, so true.

Friendships are beautiful, and maybe if we would be a little less self absorbed, we would admit to ourselves that our friends affect us more than we let on.

Pains from terminated friendships sometimes never really go away. It reflects in how wary we are of new people that try to come into our lives.

And also, maybe instead of focusing on romance, we should pay attention to being true friends to those in our circle. After all, what most of us look out for in romance is great friendship with the benefit of sexual gratification (now or later).

Yet, attraction is fickle and sex is cheap.

But true friendship? That, beloved, is a rare jewel.

Source: newsday.co.ke