Having your best friend around is like being in a time warp, at least for me. My best friends have been around for 14 years if not more, long enough to have their own arsenal of embarrassing tactical nukes against me, and vice versa. In the case of my Misses, she's known some of her companions for more than 25 years, so while that does trump me, we aren't talking about her. Being with them suddenly transports me to a place where it's okay to be out until half 3 in the morning, drunk and ruined beyond acceptable limits. It means them letting you watch the Rugger match without complaint even if they can barely follow it. Most of all it means that you know them better than they know themselves, and you can all behave as if you've just skipped class and done something wholly inappropriate for a day.
"Know them better than they know themselves". Isn't that the truth. My best friend is in my dog house, if only slightly. There are certain sexual conquests in his past that I feel I must hold against him on a purely jealous factor. Yes, jealously is a terrible thing, especially jealousy of your friends, but I am well aware that I have life elements in my favor that out do him - somewhere in there it's a wash. I miss him. I miss everything that we did in the last three months that I wasn't 'supposed to'.
I miss him. And I worry about him. I worry because I'm watching him spin his wheels furiously in the dirt of futility while most everyone else since found drier ground to drive on. I want to shake him, yell at him, get to listen not only to me, but to the other 3 (him being the forth in this quintet) and to the facts of life itself. If you can't get a car working after 13 years, is the car really worth driving any more?
And yet I'm afraid that's where the problem lies. I'm telling him, the others are telling him, but sometimes, the best of intentions bring about the opposite effects. Like when Marshall, Lily, Robin & Barney all convinced Ted to dye his hair blonde by saying how bad an idea it was. I fear the more I try to help, the deeper I push him back down that path of desperation. I know there's nothing I can really do for him, only those great 'friend' things. Be there, be supportive. Watch him while he tries yet again to slay that windmill, and be the friend he needs on the other side.
