So I'm kind-of addicted to a new podcast called Dear Sugar.
It's Cheryl Strayed's podcast. One she does with a guy called Steve Almond.
Cheryl is the author of Wild, the book that was made into a movie that starred Reese Witherspoon.
I wasn't wild about the movie (haha!) but now that I've heard her podcast, I quite love her :)
Anyway, Dear Sugar is the title of her column which is one of the reasons she became famous, I think.
They talk about everything relationships on this podcast, which is probably why I love it so much!
People aren't like tapestries - you can't just pull out the bits you don't like. - Dear Sugar podcast
I can't remember in which context this was said but I loved it so I wrote it down.
It got me thinking about how with any relationship really, but definitely with friendships, you have to decide to accept all the bits if you're going to be friends with someone.
Or you have to accept that the annoying bits are endearing and quirky, and not a deal breaker.
Or you stop being friends.
The trick is that sometimes we don't know what those deal breaker things are until after the fact.
For me, I've had friends say hurtful things to me. That's not a deal breaker at all. The deal breaker is when you don't care that I'm hurt by those statements.
I have a work friend who is always late. Always. I'm always tempted to send her separate meeting invites so she actually pitches up on time. But this is not deal breaker stuff because in the ways that count, she is trustworthy, caring, and calls me out on things.
I'm afraid I'm still reading the election coverage on blogs despite my good intentions. I think it's because it feels like if I lived in the US, some of these issues might be dealbreaker issues for me and I wonder if I'd have any friends left. My stance is not so much political but more values-based.
I read a blog this week and she said that she'd been to a seminar with two speakers prior to the election, and both speakers spoke as if everyone there would be voting for Clinton. One speaker did say that statistically speaking there were at least a few Trump supporters but it highlighted (after the fact) that people were letting other people believe what they wanted, and staying under the radar. Anyway, the comments on that post are interesting.
This whole election business also highlighted to me that clearly I follow only one type of person and I need to change that.
Have you seen posts on the internet earlier this week (and podcasts for the 2 people who listen to podcasts!) talking about surviving Thanksgiving after all the politics? I hope all my US friends had good Thanksgivings!
Back to friendship.
Have you ever had a values/ beliefs disagreement in a friendship? How did it play out? Did you decide that it was okay and you'd accept it or did the friendship end?
(as always, you can stay anonymous - I'm more interested in the story than who is saying it :))
