Member-only story
Friendship And Forgiveness
Where do you stand?
I have a friend who grew up with the literal silver spoon in his mouth. His parents sent him off to boarding school at the age of seven and he suffered through the many trials and tribulations that type of institutional and educational torture entails.
He did tell me; “Michael, no matter how bad it was at school, it was better than being under the daily care of my parents.”
How sad is that? My childhood was not a bed of roses. I was the middle child and the eldest son of an eldest son who was raised on the basis of “spare the rod and spoil the child” and “father knows best”, but I do have some good memories of my childhood.
My friend (I’ll call him Robert) is a very complex individual. Robert is both a recovering alcoholic and recovering coke addict and has been in recovery for 20 + years with no back-sliding. This is very, very admirable in my eyes.
He has issues, though don’t we all to some degree or other. When he is up and on top of things, he is very engaging, generous to a fault and a great person to have intelligent, lively conversations with.
When he is down; a different kettle of fish.
When he is down he is rude, manic and bloody difficult to deal with. I have chosen to look aside when these moods take…
