The value of a friendship

I tried a little experiment on FaceBook the past couple of months. With a few friends, I stopped initiating conversations. I didn't ignore my friends. I decided to let them come to me instead of me going to them. What happened? Well, I haven't spoken with them, at all, since the experiment started, until one of them sent me a link to a page about letting go of attachment. Her whole point was about how she didn't need any connections to me, so she was formally severing them. To be honest, she was among the friends I picked for that experiment because I honestly questioned the nature of that friendship before I even designed the experiment, so severing connections with her was not a real problem, which was un-friending her on FaceBook, but I do need to reflect on the past here and derive some sort of lesson. The lesson in that one case, don't be of endless utility to your friends. In fact, it is best to be of no need to your friends. Mega Tokyo put it best, when Largo replied he didn't need Erika either, tossed her a beer and continued on without blinking. If people are around you out of utility, then you are going to get hurt.

But I also haven't spoken with a couple of people I thought were going to message me within a couple of days. Seems like I misread those friendships. My concern is, that I am more of an annoyance than a pleasure for people. I don't want to waste time around people who don't enjoy my company. Annoying people is not a good way to build a positive reputation. Now I need to be oh so very careful with my other friends and figure out what the nature of those friendships is. Thing is, I actually value some of those friendships, so this part is actually gonna hurt.

Moral of the story? Be careful of who your friends are.

- Servus