#Microblog Monday 380: The Friends Who Break Your Heart
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Our culture is terrible with endings. Beginnings — we go above and beyond. Endings — not so much. Like everyone else, I was drawn into the recent Atlantic article about friendships that begins: “Our culture lacks the proper script for ending friendships. We have no rituals to observe, no paperwork to do, no boilerplate dialogue to crib from.”
You can divorce a spouse, but we don’t have a method for uncoupling a friendship. The article tries to give a blueprint (or a reason for a blueprint) to that.
It is worth the very long read because it unpacks this truth: “What makes friendship so fragile is also exactly what makes it so special. You have to continually opt in. That you choose it is what gives it its value.”
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3 comments
I haven’t read the article yet (though I promise I will), but I guess we don’t deal with endings because they are painful, as all losses are. Friendships are usually valuable, sometimes for a while, sometimes forever. I’m interested to see what the article says. Thanks for always giving me something new to think about, Mel.
Yes. So many friendships just kinda drift away.
I read that article a few weeks ago. Friendships can be hard, and making new friends at midlife is very hard — even more so when you don’t have kids to bond over, I think.