Friday, July 17, 2015

Friendship (Part 2 of 2)

In reviewing my life, which I do occasionally, friendship has always been a large factor. What I didn't get was that I was the good friend. I pursued relationships, reached out to others, and they responded, but I don't think of them as my true friends, let alone best friends.

That's not to speak against them—but to face the fact that I wasn't able to accept others or open myself to them. When a significant piece of our lives remains hidden from us, as mine was, we don't know how to receive such relationships. Even more, we didn't know how to recognize such relationships.

I reached out for something I didn't have and didn't know how to receive. Maybe that's why I surrounded myself with people—and I did that a lot. One thing I did realize, even during my teens, was that when I had a serious crisis in my life, I had no one to tell or ask.

I lived with that paradox: I had many friends, but I had no true, deep friendship. When I was still in high school, I read Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Alone" and memorized the first lines.

They read this way:
From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring

My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;

And all I loved, I loved alone.
Why did that poem stay with me and touch me so deeply? I know the answer now. But it was an enigma then. And part of my tortured life was the secret I had told no one until I was 51 years old.

Like many other men, my sexual assault kept me isolated and unavailable.

These days I have a best friend and several good friends. I'm open to widening the circle.

2 comments:

Andrew J. Schmutzer said...

Friendship, what an important (and complex!) discussion for survivors. Approaching 50, I'm just starting to roll back my history of 'alone-ness.' Reaching out and forms of emotional intimacy have historically been terror-making for me. If average men live and die in relative loneliness, it's epidemic for survivors. So I'm very thankful for 2-3 friends I presently have who are moving into the realm of soul-enriching friendships. I now see that it's easier to put relationships in 'boxes' that are predictable--now I know that deep friendships rightly reach beyond comfortable categories (e.g., marriage, co-worker, etc.), into areas of life and living survivors can't manage. There's the hurdle! What a great friend, indeed, who would commit to love an emotional-leper.

Dan said...

well said Andrew!
I think I have some good friends, but if/ or when I tell them....will they be able to handle it, or walk with me as I/ we process it.