It's just that we've been friends since the very first day of elementary school. There's a lot of history there that I'd feel bad about throwing away.
People change. None of you are who you were in elementary school and to expect that your re
lationships would stay the same is foolish. Just as many things have a beginning, so do they have an end. Sadly, many of us hang on to things past their end-date, so rather than having good memories, tinged by a little sadness that they're over, we have bad experiences that taint the whole thing. One of the best things you can do with all that great history that you have is to
not throw it away. Give it the respect it deserves by not stretching past the breaking point.
Here's an analogy from the world of newspaper cartoons. Bill Watterson, the writer of
Calvin and Hobbes retired at what many think was the height of his career. I would have loved to have had that rel
ationship continue, but it didn't. I can look at the old strips and remember how funny they were at the time I first read them (and how funny they are now), with a little bit of sadness that there won't be any more. When I was a kid, I loved Johnny Hart's cartoons,
B.C. and
The Wizard of Id. Both of those jumped the shark many years ago and now I can't go back and read them without thinking about how truly awful they became.
Which kind of memory would you like of this person and your rel
ationship? Good ones colored with a little regret, or bad ones filled with bitterness and resentment?
