Mistakes

In reflecting upon mistakes one made in one's past, it is a consolation to realize that other people made bigger and stupider mistakes. My thoughts turn to former friends and the reasons they are exes. It seems wasteful to build a relationship with another human being, spending months or even years getting to know them, only to sever contact due to some trivial misunderstanding. I am mild. If they couldn't abide by me then they could not abide by an African violet or a sunset or a cat. Some people are in too much of a hurry to get wherever they think that they are going. They place a greater value on status and power than upon friendship. I do not have much status or power. I have known too many selfish and immature people (of either gender, of all sexualities) who were interested only in sex or money/status/power. They did not place value upon relationships or friendships. In the modern and mobile age, people regard other people as disposable and cycle through a number of what they regard as replaceable peasants in the hopes of finding the King or Queen who can grant their every desire. All the insight I could have offered them about their past and present is committed to dust as they start over with bright new pretty acquaintances that may not care to understand them at all. What I offered was uncommon, and what they wanted was common. They opted for copper over gold. So I have hidden my gold away from the narrow eyes of my former, faithless friends, who will never see it, or if they had once caught a glimpse and did not recognize the metal for what it was, they will see it no more. The past was nothing more than a training ground of social experiments from which I built my store of wisdom. Forget the faithless friends of the past, those who taught me what not to do. I am here for my friends of today, people good and kind. I share my gold with my friends of today. I share with them my light.