The meaning of friendship

Its amazing how sometimes we make inaccurate assessments of the friends in our lives. Usually I'm on the short end of the stick. As I sit here in ATL, on my friend's computer, this epiphany has struck me. True friends go out of their way for each other. Superficial friends go out to bars, have some laughs, and think that they know and can depend on the other person, but really cant in all situations.

Why bring this up? My trip to Atlanta for the Thanksgiving holiday was to hang out with two friends I've maintained close ties with since leaving ATL--BG and JO (wouldn't that be funny if they were BJ and JO?!) . I assumed (as was the plan) that I would be staying with and spending the majority of my time with JO--who I have long considered one of my closest friends due to an intangible bond that we share. But no, I haven't seen JO in two and a half days now...so much for staying at his apartment while in town, catching up, and reminiscing about days past. If it wasn't for BG, I'd probably be having one of those trips where I say "Why the fuck did I even bother coming here?". Don't get me wrong...I love my BG and would come just to hang with him (as we've visited each other in the past), but I am just disappointed in the lack of attention shown by JO.

This is now the second time that JO has slighted me...I only give people 3 strikes, whether they realize it or not. And I can assuredly state that I will not be going out of my way for him in the future--unless I see some major reciprocation of effort. But I guess this weekend was actually valuable--it has made me realize what and who are most important in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention those people from my past who have come out of the woodwork to spend time with me in my stay here besides BG and JO.

As we used to sing in The Brownies (a story for another post), "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold." So true. And we must remember that both silver and gold tarnish with time; if not properly maintained, those once glittering jewels are relegated to the pawn shop.