Book of D: The Reason for Friends

AN excellent day for friends. I woke up early today. I was able to accomplish a lot of things before I made my way to work. I even had time to read and get ahead of my reading assignments by an entire chapter. That's a huge feat because this class is fast-and-furious. I reached out to an old friend before I left the house. I have been in a good mood these past few months, and as I thought about my good mood, good health, and good fortune, I thought about this particular friend, so I decided to text her and see about getting together for dinner and drinks. She was part of the group of friends who traveled to Ft. Worth earlier this summer for a convention; it was a wonderful trip and event. Anyway...this person is fast becoming a great friend to my partner and myself. This friend, whom I shall now refer to as "Ellie," is extremely intelligent and generous. She is the type of person who is the first to arrive when someone needs aid of any kind and is the first one to ask, "what can I do?' She is also the last one to leave just in case there are last minute details to be addressed or aid to be provided. She recently had a tragedy occur in her own life. I won't go into detail about it. The tragedy is over now, and everyone affected is doing wonderfully. I am grateful for that fact. The roles reversed a bit recently My partner recently took ill. It was not a life-threatening ordeal, but still, it was a tribulation for us. I am extremely glad that my partner has recovered and that our friend Ellie was once again there for us. In my good mood and readiness to hang out with Ellie, I thought about how many people have been allowed to venture into my life. Some are still around, and they are valued. Some are no longer around, through their own freewill and accord; they are not entirely missed, but they did provide a sort of tutelage all their own. Life is tricky; a real paradox, but it is what it is. Friends like Ellie are the fruit of living a good life and trying to do good things for others. The others who are not around, well, they no longer matter--not really. There is a reason why people enter our lives. The people who chose to stay, they are the reason for friends.

Book of D: The Man at School

I arrived in the parking lot, looking for that prime spot; you know the one, the one that requires the road less traveled. Pardon the pun. Anyway, I was in a good mood as I approached the front doors of the university, where I have worked for over a year. I passed this one gentleman; he was wearing the dark blue uniform the maintenance workers wear. He was an older man with grey, curly hair sprawling from underneath the dirty-looking gray baseball cap he wore; the cap was slightly placed to one side--it looked like an unintentional way of wearing the cap. Not like a younger person would purposely wear it to show he/she was cool. This gentleman looked tired, thus, the manner in which he wore the ball cap was more happenstance than purposeful. I consider myself a friendly person. I also consider myself as having a great amount of confidence, so I tend to walk with my head held high, but I am always aware of others, so I make myself ready to greet others in a friendly manner. This gentleman was not having any of my friendly ways. He completely ignored me. He did look up one time as I was getting closer to him, but he looked back down to the can of Dr. Pepper he had on the concrete pony wall he was sitting on. I was not hurt by his lack of a greeting. I did not know him, after all, so it did me no harm either way. It was how his eyes glared at me that was more disconcerting than his ability to act like I was invisible. I was reminded of another gentleman, around this man's age, body type, and stature. This other gentleman had given up soda to better his health, so when I noticed the can of soda next to this maintenance worker's lap, I thought to myself, 'soda is so bad for you especially for someone your age.' What if this maintenance worker had the ability to read minds and knew the first thought that entered my head before I drew closer to where he was sitting down. Who knows. All I know is the feeling I had when I passed by him. I was sad. I wondered if he was sad. I entered through the front, glass-laden doors of the university and started towards the stairs. I quickly forgot the emotion of sadness the maintenance worker had brought out in me. I instead focused on the work I had to finish today. I just hope the man is doing okay. Maybe I should have made it a point to say hi to him instead of respecting what I thought was his right to be left alone. Maybe he was waiting for someone to ask him how he was doing.