I Have A Longstanding Friendship That Does Not Work Anymore

I have a longtime friendship that doesn’t work anymore. This relationship has been one of my most important friendships for many years.

I met this person when we were both in college. I’m 40 now. Over the years we’ve kept in close touch and visited each other in the different cities we have lived in since college.

At this point however, we are barely able to make a phone call work. There is not much to say and there’s an awareness that certain subjects may lead to disagreement. 

We have much less in common than we did before. Increasingly, we see the world and react to the world in different ways. Nobody has done anything wrong. It’s simply that things change.

Our differences have emerged slowly and with a minimum of conflict. 

I’m hesitant to give up on relationships. I’ve not given up on this relationship. Yet the breach is real.

I’ve thought hard about best to proceed with this while keeping a door open. Relationships often play out over a lifetime. If we could get along well for almost 20 years, it’s possible we might be able to be close again. This is one reason I’m glad that we’ve not exchanged harsh words.

While I don’t have the affection I once did for this person, I do feel loyalty for the years of friendship. I think this loyalty will continue. I see this loyalty as a possible building block for a renewed relationship.

Sometimes a friendship does not work as it once did and you might decide to give up on it.  In some cases that might be the best course. 

Here, I’m pulling away from the relationship until I feel it might work again. Since we’ve mostly avoided conflict, I figure we might have a chance down the road

I don’t know if this will turn out for the best. I do know that you can’t recreate longterm friendships and that every effort should be taken to keep them working to the extent possible.

As Liberal As I Am, If Hillary Clinton Is The 2008 Democratic Nominee I Will Give Her My Strong Support

 

If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee for President in 2008, she’ll have my strong support.

I say this though Mrs. Clinton is not my first choice for 2008. I support John Edwards because of his focus on economic issues as they impact the middle class and the poor. I’m also interested in the candidacy of Barack Obama.

In my view, Mrs. Clinton’s soft center-left focus and the Clinton legacy of moving the Democratic Party to the middle are not great recommendations for her White House bid.

So why will I support Mrs. Clinton if she wins the nomination?

It is because our problems today are so great that we must give a Democratic President serving with, hopefully, a Democratic Congress, a chance to find solutions to these challenges.     

In these times, I can’t sit on my hands because the Democratic nominee is not the person I wanted.  

In a normal campaign, the issues of the War in Iraq and how to get health insurance to all Americans would be dramatic enough concerns.  

Yet in 2008 , there are even greater problems before the American people. 

The issues of climate change and the effects of the global economy on how Americans will live are matters as pressing as the dilemmas that faced America between the Stock Crash of 1929 and the end of World War II. 

To this point, neither party has taken leadership on these questions. 

I don’t know that either party knows how to respond. There must be policy analysts and thinkers within the political structure who see the perils we face. I don’t think they have any answers. Or at least I don’t think they have any answers they believe the American people will accept before things get even worse.

Many Americans saw the Civil War coming years before it occurred. Nobody had a solution. Or least nobody had a solution that could pass political muster.

I’m not going to pretend I’m overly hopeful that Mrs. Clinton and a Democratic Congress will strongly take on climate change and the impact of the global economy.

Still, I feel we must give out traditional political structure a chance to work before reaching the point of saying our system is as broken and hopeless today as it was in the final years leading up to the Civil War.        

Since I’m certain Mrs. Clinton reads Texas Liberal each day as she reviews the blogs, I’ve run a picture of the great Eleanor Roosevelt with this post. I feel this picture will inspire Mrs. Clinton to confront the toughest issues with candor and courage.