All my friends
Are going to be strangers
Friends. How many of us have them? Friends. Ones we can depend on.
Prove me wrong. I’ve come in a bit hot here. My heart in your hands, wearing my open wounds like a badge of honor. Pardon me. Are all my friends really going to eventually become strangers? I hope not. I’m crossing my fingers, really.
Take it from me, a guy who has been completely disowned as a friend on multiple occasions. It sucks. Truth. If I were to quantify it — I’m on pace to lose a friend once every year or so. Clocks ticking. And I don’t have many left to lose.
We are all somewhat unknowable. Some more so than others. Surely I have some part in it all, but so do you. One side is never blameless. We are all at fault.
In short, the unknowable gives license for one half to cut the cord. Pull the plug. Give the old heave-ho, out the door and into the dark and damp night. Total black. Blind to the road ahead. Unable to make heads or tails. Drifting aimlessly back inside a shell filled to the brim with unanswerable questions.
It is easier now than ever for a friend to become a stranger right before your very eyes. Some taps of a like button, a witty comment, a smart emoji placement — I love you my good friend! Enough with that shit! Don’t fade slowly into obscurity on a slide of endless hearts.
Seriously. Reach out and touch me, man! Be a human. Show love when you can. Surround yourself with your people. Keep your circle tight. Hug them and never let them go. Give ‘em a great big kiss. When I say i’m in love you best believe i’m in love, L U V.
If you have to make a few strangers, go ahead, but let them know. Don’t leave them without a life line. Have some decency people.
All of your friends will become strangers. Unless they prove you wrong. And then you will be friends forever. Holding hands. Texting funnies. Drinking High Life and ripping Marlboro Lights on mushrooms. Until you begin again. You’ll just have to wait and see.
I like this.
Excuse me for a little light pedantry, but do you know the Merle Haggard single that presumably inspired the McMurtry title? It’s a country music masterpiece, and Haggard named his band the Strangers after it. Liz Anderson wrote it, but Haggard lived it.