Friday, November 11, 2005

Open Letter To A "Friend"

Hi, we were introduced long ago but I think you might have forgotten me.

At one time, I was your biggest supporter and always stood in awe of your work.

I was once told that you’re the reason why people write songs, sing beautiful music, or even launch a thousand ships .

I’ve head stories where you’ve helped people cure the sick or even the inspire people to build great works such as the Taj Mahal .

Even though I was not around when it happened, I was told that you are the reason that my parents got together.

People sang praises of your work and you have always been around even when I did not know it.

I’ve looked up to you all of my life and it started when I saw someone on TV speak your name. Before I knew it, I was campaigning hard to make sure people knew ALL about you.

It was easy back then. I was young and innocent and what you meant to me could be nothing more than a schoolboy crush. However, I kept at it because having your attention made me feel good.

It worked well until…

Something happened along the way. I used to think that I would know you forever … but as I grew older, I discovered that you were fickle. You didn’t like to stick around maintain the fruits of your labor and lots of people paid for that.

My parents tried to make it without you but they couldn’t handle the weight of the task and left each other years later.

They got off easy. I’ve heard others you have left that ended up dying, either by their hand or someone else’s.

However, I kept believing in you. Because you see you were the force I could always count on. There were people in music in the movies telling the world, “Love means never having to say that you’re sorry .”

I believed in that because to me it was more powerful than the equation that told me how the sun worked. It was more powerful than the chemical makeup that made of the air I breathe, the water I drank, the food I ate.

It was powerful because it was you….

And …

…you…

…were…

LOVE .

I accepted you when I met my first girlfriend. She was sweet, kind and so willing to show me all the things you could give.

I wrote poetry … bought gifts … traveled the world to be with her.

It was a party as your cousins, Joy and Bliss frequently visited me as well. I thought I could never feel this way all the time.

However, something happened. You had to leave and like my parents before I couldn’t hold up the relationship and it crumbled.

I thought I would never talk to you again but once again, you showed up on my doorstep. You apologized for leaving me before and begged me to keep believing in you. You told me you would leave me high and dry again.

I believed you and like a battered woman who had nothing else to live for but you, I brought you back into my life.

But it always ended the same.

Year after Year, Woman after Woman I found myself having more pain than I needed to have. The heart was a fragile piece of machinery and repairing more than often make it less than what it was.

Suddenly the feeling that I got every time I met someone was replaced with something else. Something more deadly to me and those around me.

Exhilaration was replaced with Fear.
Confidence was replaces with uneasiness.
Emotion was replaced with Bitterness.

Now I was hanging around your cousins, Lust and Hate and they told me things you never could. They showed me how I could treat a woman and not get hurt. I had no choice because I did not want you to show up on my door step and leave me once again as you had do so many times before.

My heart could not take much more.

Obviously, you were making the rounds because I noticed that even when you did stay your work got perverted. People didn’t treat people with the same raw emotion that they did before.

No Grand Halls were be built. No ships were launched … it was basic, primal ... lonely.

Where there was once celebration of your kind touches by word and song it was now cynical looks at what it was all worth.

The Booty Call replaced the Sweet Nothing.

Sad isn’t it.

I think so.

I don’t want to hate you any more. It’s too taxing and will leave me to be a bitter and lonely old man if I do.

So I’m going to make the first move. I’m going to extend an olive branch asking you to help me spread the word again. Help me show people that you’re not some urban legend that people whisper to their boyfriends/girlfriends/babymamas/babydaddies to keep them in line.

I know that we can do this together. Don’t you need the good press.

Don’t you need to know that your life on this planet matters.

So Love, tell me, what can we do to change the world. What can we do to make things right?

At least meet me halfway.

You owe me that much at least.

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