[Faith-talk] Boy friends, et cetera

[Penny Golden]

Dear Readers,

I read the note asking for prayer for a man who is supposedly a 
hypocrite and was avoiding the writer of the note.
I am afraid I felt a little sorry for the guy she was writing 
about.  Is it possible that, somehow, she is pursuing this individual 
in a way that is not comfortable for him?
He doesn't perhaps want to come out and say: could you back off--but 
that may be the way he feels.  Is something embarrassing him about 
the relationship?  Is he feeling somehow entrapped?

I'm sorry to write on such a delicate subject in this manner.  We 
don't have the entire story--and, probably, it is a good thing we do not.

Maybe the boy wants some space.  maybe he has plans to visit the 
parade with someone else.  Maybe, for some reason, he is not 
comfortable with the writer.

My Aunt, a wise old pagan, told me something that I have never forgotten:

She said, "Penny, you must not be so possessive."

I was twelve years old at the time; a friend of mine had promised to 
come over and I was really fretted about it.  Yes, it was a broken 
promise and it was not right of my friend to make a promise and then break it.

But perhaps my wise old Aunt was correct: I was being too possessive 
of my friend.  She might have wanted to pursue something that she was 
uncomfortable for me to be a part of.

I remember how Tom Sawyer would go down-town but he didn't want 
Huckleberry to accompany him on such jaunts.  Huck and Tom were good 
friends--but somehow, his raggedy friend Huck was a bit of a drawback 
in some of Tom's plans and pursuits.

I do have a wonderful group of friends whom, I think, feel 
comfortable with me.  This subject might well be one that needs a 
little airing.

If we force our friends to play with us, at some point, they'll go 
elsewhere, where we can't follow--just to get some breathing room.

Forgive me if I've stepped on too many corns.

On another subject--I've seen so much anger and unkindness in some 
posts that I have just refused to read any further posts from people 
who have hit me that way.  I never thought I would get to the place 
where I would avoid reading correspondence to a list just based upon 
the writer's name--for I'd been so disappointed in what I had read in 
the recent past.

Maybe that's how my letter hits some of our readers.  If so, I'm sorry.

As blind people, we are pretty sensitive to having been discriminated 
against in various situations--only because of the 
blindness.  Sometimes it is true discrimination and it's 
despicable.  Sometimes we have made ourselves so unlovable or so 
nasty or so vociferous that we have made others tremendously 
uncomfortable or embarrassed to be around us.

Thanks for hearing me out.  I don't have a lot of answers--and I 
haven't presented my thoughts too  rationally.  But perhaps someone 
understands something of what I've tried to say.

Kindest regards,
Penny

P.S. I do hope this subject is not beyond the compass of this list.