Share Your World – 2016 Week 49

What do you value most in a friendship?

Loyalty, a sense of humor, and intelligence. The only reason I have ever ended a friendship (from my end) was disloyalty. I have been dumped often enough by other people and their reasons are different, but for me? I need to know that a friend is really a friend. I hate rumor mongers, eavesdroppers, and people who talk behind your back, but smile in your face.

As for intelligence, I don’t mean education. You don’t need a lot of schooling to be smart. I’ve met some brilliant high school dropouts and some incredibly stupid Ph.D. holders. I find it difficult to talk to people who are slow to grasp concepts. If I have to talk down to someone (not because of a difference in culture or language, but because they simply don’t get it), I am very uncomfortable and probably, so are they.

I need laughter in a relationship. I need it as much as I need air to breathe. There is a lot of pain and sadness and loss in our lives — and it only gets more so as we get older. If you cannot find respite in laughter, you will be miserable. Amidst the misery of life, there’s plenty of absurdity. Right now and for the foreseeable future, our bizarre political world IS funny. In a horrible kind of way.

You can’t make this stuff up. It has to be true because if you wrote it as fiction, no one would believe it.

Do you prefer eating the frosting of the cake or the cupcake first?  Do you prefer a specific flavor?

I don’t like icing and will usually scrape it off and just eat the cake. I do, however, like whipped cream and will eat that all by itself. No cake required!

Have you ever been in a submarine?  If you haven’t, would you want to?

We went out into the Caribbean in a tiny little 60-person submarine (the Atlantis) to see the fish and the coral reef. It was beautiful.

I can’t imagine spending months at a time in something like that, even if it was a little bit larger. Still, I did enjoy the trip. It’s a great way to see the how the mer-people might live.

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

More satisfying? I can’t imagine that they are more satisfied. They may be healthier (which would not be hard, given my long list of ailments) and they probably  have more money and can do more stuff, but I’m satisfied with the life I live and have lived.

Garry and I have gotten older and slowed down, but we are still here. I frequently remind myself — and others — that there are only two options: old, or not. Not doesn’t work for me, so I’m satisfied.

I’m here.

Categories: Friendship, Humor, Personal

Tags: cupcakes, friendship, humor, person, Share Your World