Totally in agreement with my old friend Gemma on this. That hasn’t always been the case! 😱😩😨
We have had to work very hard at even remaining civil to each other at times. But I’ve always tried to force myself to avoid, through bad character, mischievousness, or recklessness, rubbing Gemma up the wrong way and she, I think, has been doing something the same.
Intelligent, caring, sensible friends like Gemma are worth working to keep, perhaps this kind of friendship is “worth fighting for”. It’s not the romantic love Sheryl née Tweedie was singing about, but isn’t it just as important? Like the caring social distancing Gemma writes of, the kind nod or smile in passing, the compassion and willingness to try to understand each other.
Just because we are often really radically different from one another should not be grounds for suspicion. Trust one another, give each other the bemefit of the doubt. Be slower to take offence, assume, accuse gossip (Facebookers!)
Perhaps we should try to walk “up to about an hour” (M Gove) in someone else’s shoes – every day. And maybe stop to talk to someone who looks lost.
Thank you, Gemma, for persevering with me at a distance! 😘
Lockdown has been a strange time. In normal times I walk in and around my local area and we’re lucky to have such a beautiful area to walk around in. Edinburgh is incredibly lucky that it has so many places of beauty all within a city. We really don’t have to travel far to find peace and tranquility within our gorgeous and historically soaked city.
However, lockdown began about a thousand weeks ago and things changed. Suddenly walking was a “right” and people got defensive about it. People were walking around not looking at each other, seemingly ready for a bombardment from others about why they were out.
Sadly, some people thought that lockdown meant no one was allowed out and that people who were out were breaking the law. It was, of course, untrue. It led to arguments on everyone’s favourite argument site – Facebook. People raged about…
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Of Passion and of Mirth 