Finding a Little Love in Your Heart
Yesterday was a bit of a "Day of Reconciliation" for me. An ex- friend who I'd not spoken to for a long period of time (a year, to be precise), finally broke the ice by turning up unexpectedly at my doorstep. Maybe the whole Coronavirus thing got him thinking about life more than usual. God knows what brought this change in him, but regardless, he wanted to make amends. Now I had two options after peeping through the curtain to see his familiar visage waiting outside: Either not open the door and wait for him to leave or prepare myself for another possible confrontation. Given my mood at the time, I chose the latter...
His initial reaction upon seeing me appeared to be one of a humbling guilt. Without getting into the sordid story itself, I think it's safe to say all the other members of our friendship circle kinda ostracised him too. In a word, he mess up big time. Anyways, he began speaking. I soon discovered that everything "after" the said events that went down between us all, had been a total shit show. His personal life took somewhat of a nosedive and things weren't looking too great in the near term either. I also found out that a pre-cursor to all that went wrong afterwards, actually took place at the same time he pulled a "mental" on us all. The reasonings behind his abhorrent behaviour was fitting into place and making sense now. I felt like a poor man's Columbo.
Well, call me an old softy, but I've always found it hard to hold a grudge for too long. Seeing as I had a bit of time on my hands, we went out of a drink and bite to eat. He continued to breakdown an in-depth description of several other significant factors that I wasn't privy to. A part of me was actually pissed that he had waited all this time to come out with these new facts, but hey, life has taught me people are as predicable as London's weather. I just took it all at face value. I inquired as to how he wished to proceed with the others in our group. My spirits lifted a bit after he decided to choose me to visit first. Something about my non-judgemental character or whatever. I took it for what it was. After all, I had also severed contact with him, but was most definitely more open to listening to him again than the others were or would be.
So, how have we left it? Well, I'm gonna organise a meeting similar to an "intervention". He's gonna turn up, the rest of the gang will be there too and we'll all see where things go from there. Of course, there will have to be a few pretences to get some of the boys to come in the first place, however I'm sure they forgive me soon enough after they too, are made aware of what was really going on behind the scenes. I mean, the guy looked sincere enough. To me, anyways. It'll take place most likely on Thursday of next week.
And the outcome will be most interesting, to say the least.
Better to have a friend than an enemy.
Never hold a grudge, if possible.