Replaced

There is an arc to platonic life. As kids, your life revolves around friends. Every waking moment is consumed with how to fit them into every facet of your life. They define your life. Unknown to you, they are teaching you life lessons about relationships. 

In the blink of an eye, you graduate from high school promising to stay in touch forever. It is a lie, but one told with the best of intentions. Soon, your life will enter a new stage. The pain and pride of transition is paramount. Again, you are being prepped for the next phase of your life. 

From here, college, military or work... you make new friends. You become more focused on relationships. The cycle is now about quality not quantity. Here, you become focused on finding love. The search for the one intensifies. As you hunt, friends will be placed on the back burner. No one is at fault here. It is just part of the cycle. 

Finally, you settle down. Family becomes your reason for living. Unknown to you though, old friends will occupy the void. These are friends who are slow to find love. They cherish friendship and they are replaced more and more each night. I am one of those friends. 

I am bookends holding up "To Kill A Mockingbird." I am a paperweight on Hemingway's manuscripts. I am a match awaiting the duty of striking coals. I am replaceable. I am a moment in time before something great. My moment will come. My platonic arc will crest over the series of fires that is life. When it happens, I will conduct the replacing, but I will do so remembering how it feels.

Thanks for entering my world,

-Nathan