The Keener Way

I had another word from God today. But I should probably explain a few things first, for the sake of context. For the past month and a half, I've been wrestling with a very challenging decision I have to make regarding a trip that I may or may not take. I had already made the decision, but in the aftermath of making a number of errors and misjudgments in a separate situation, there were those who felt I should re-evaluate my choice and not take the trip. The situation where I erred, those errors have since been corrected, and I stand wiser for having the experience. Nevertheless, this decision still had yet to be re-decided. Meanwhile, half a month ago, I had a birthday. And on this birthday, I took up a new hobby, stand up paddle-boarding. So. I was in the agony of feeling like I knew what the right decision was, but feeling like I lacked the logical grounds to back it up. And I felt like I needed more logical grounds to back it up, because even though I've given this decision...

  Scrolling Facebook for hours is not mentally healthy by any stretch of the imagination. I try to do it very little. But every once in a while, some worthy tidbit of wisdom comes through my feed. And today, this is what I saw: "Paradoxically, it is friendship that often offers us the real route to the pleasures that Romanticism associates with love. That this sounds surprising is only a reflection of how underdeveloped our day-to-day vision of friendship has become. We associate it with a casual acquaintance we see only once in a while to exchange inconsequential and shallow banter. But real friendship is something altogether more profound and worthy of exultation. It is an arena in which two people can get a sense of each other’s vulnerabilities, appreciate each other’s follies without recrimination, reassure each other as to their value, and greet the sorrows and tragedies of existence with wit and warmth. Culturally and collectively, we have made a momentous mistake...